Programme News
2 October 2014
(Press release)
On August 13, 2014, Mr. Edwin Samotse, a Botswana national, was unlawfully deported from South Africa to Botswana, where he runs the risk of being sentenced to death and executed. While South Africa’s conduct has been declared unlawful, FIDH – a member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty – LHR and DITSHWANELO call upon the authorities of Botswana to guarantee...
30 September 2014
(News)
There is no law to prevent refugees and asylum seekers from getting licences to operate spaza shops in SA, the Supreme Court of Appeal said on Friday.
The proliferation of immigrant-run spaza shops in townships across the country has led to tension with local traders, some of whom have argued that only South African citizens should be entitled to licences. While they appeared to have support from...
23 September 2014
(News)
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba must ensure his staff knows the law applying to immigrants and deportations, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled on Tuesday.
Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann referred Gigaba to a previous Constitutional Court ruling involving the deportations of two Botswana nationals.
The court had found it was unlawful for the department to deport or surrender a...
19 September 2014
(Press release)
Judgment in the matter of Samotse and another v Minister of Home Affairs and others was reserved today in the North Gauteng High Court. The Court said that judgment will be handed down on Tuesday 23 September 2014 at 10am.
Legal Aid South Africa and Lawyers for Human Rights are seeking an order declaring the deportation of Edwin Samotse to face the death penalty in...
5 September 2014
(News)
The bubbly 12-year-old speaking animatedly from her hospital bed barely resembles the girl who made headlines in July when her brother went to court to save her life.
The young girl’s plight was revealed after her 26-year-old brother went to the Pretoria High Court to get his sister admitted to Pretoria’s Steve Biko Academic Hospital for a life-saving heart operation.
He claimed that...
12 August 2014
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has cautiously welcomed today’s (Tuesday) announcement by the Department of Home Affairs that a new dispensation permit for Zimbabwean nationals will be issued as of 1 January 2015. Applications will be received from 1 October – 31 December 2014 and permits will be valid for a maximum of three years. This will replace the permits issued during the 2010...
11 August 2014
(News)
Judy Manjoro (49) is a teacher, but when she fled Zimbabwe in 2005 during political violence and came to South Africa, she was forced to become a domestic worker because there was no other work available.
In the afternoons when she returned to her home in Yeoville, Johannesburg, she would gather the children of other refugees off the streets and give them lessons.
In 2011 she formalised this...
6 August 2014
(News)
Three weeks after the Gauteng North High court ordered that a 12-year-old Somali girl be placed on a waiting list for heart surgery, she is still waiting for the operation.
There are 43 other children requiring similar surgery at Steve Biko Academic Hospital and the girl’s family is worried she may die while on the waiting list.
The girl, who cannot be named because she is a minor,...
21 July 2014
(News)
Zimbabwe will be able to support any influx of deportees from South Africa and Botswana, according to the minister of home affairs, Kembo Mohadi.
There are indications that the two neighbouring countries might start deporting a large number of undocumented Zimbabweans.
South Africa has introduced stringent immigration laws which will compel 250 000 Zimbabweans who benefited from a...
19 July 2014
(News)
A gravely ill 12-year-old Somali girl will receive the medical treatment she needs for a heart condition, including an operation, after a settlement was reached in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
Lawyers for Human Rights, acting on behalf of the girl's family in South Africa, launched an urgent application after she was allegedly turned away from the Steve Biko Hospital because she was...