Programme News
28 September 2015
(Press release)
The organisers of the Unite against Corruption march invite all media to an urgent final press conference before we march on Wednesday, 30 September.
The broad spectrum of coalition members will be present and will include trade unions, faith-based organisations, students and civil society. Four senior representatives from each of these constituencies will be available at the press conference....
21 September 2015
(Press release)
Civil society organisations endorsing the Unite Against Corruption marches on 30 September in Pretoria and Cape Town invite media to a briefing on Tuesday 22 September that will highlight the extent to which corruption affects the work of civil society, and the reasons for participating in these marches to register the broad dissent against those involved in corrupt practices.
Organisations...
9 September 2015
(News)
For almost two years now, the chattering classes have been deliberating the killing of Reeva Steenkamp.
The case recently became a popular topic again after Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius - the man accused of killing his blonde-model girlfriend - had his parole put on hold by South Africa's Department of Justice, just two days before he was to be released.
Questions over Pistorius'...
8 September 2015
(Press release)
Constitutional Court Judge, Justice Edwin Cameron released a report this week on his visit to Pollsmoor Remand Detention Facility and Pollsmoor Women’s Correctional Centre. The visit was undertaken in April this year, as part of the Constitutional Court’s prison visiting project, and the report details the “sickening conditions” he and his clerks witnessed.
The Detention...
7 September 2015
(News)
Forced anti-psychotics and shock therapy are par for the course at the correctional facility.
In scenes from video footage shot inside Mangaung prison, Bheki Dlamini is taken to be allegedly forcibly injected with antipsychotic drugs. (Supplied)
The Mangaung prison in the Free State, run by the beleaguered multinational private security company G4S, is allegedly forcibly injecting inmates with...
4 September 2015
(News)
Constitutional Court judge Edwin Cameron and his law clerks have published a scathing report of Pollsmoor Prison after visiting the remand centre — where awaiting trial prisoners are kept — and the women's centre on 23 April. Some of their findings are consistent with those reported by GroundUp in May.
"Justice Cameron and his law clerks were deeply shocked by what they...
3 September 2015
(News)
Almost two years after the M&G published evidence of prisoners being brutalised at the Mangaung prison, the corrections department has yet to finalise its investigation.
On a cold winter day in 2005, inmate Isaac Nelani asked wardens at Mangaung prison, run by British security firm G4S, for an extra blanket to keep him warm. The prison walls emitted a chill that crept into his joints and...
19 August 2015
(News)
The fifth annual Public Interest Law Gathering (PILG) was held at the University of the Witwatersrand last month, and provided South African lawyers and civil society with an opportunity to reflect on issues affecting the public interest sphere and to discuss ways in which the law can be used as a tool for social change.
As in all previous years, the event featured fascinating discussions on...
8 August 2015
(News)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has expressed outrage at the use of “derogatory and offensive remarks” by Deputy Minister of Police Maggie Sotyu during a memorial service for three slain officers.
Sotyu was speaking at the joint memorial service of constables Njabulo Buthelezi, James Seolwane and Celimpilo Hlabisa at the Vosloorus Civic Centre last week. They were recently killed in...