Programme News
8 September 2013
(News)
People who were relocated from the village of Ga-Pila in Mokopane, formerly Potgietersrus, are accusing mining giant Anglo Platinum (Amplats) of a litany of broken promises.
Amplats asked the villagers to make way for a mining dump. They were shifted to the nearby Sterkwater.
Now they say Amplats short-changed them on the relocation fee and failed to provide them with services they promised...
30 August 2013
(News)
Organisations Advocates for Transformation and Lawyers for Human Rights have stressed the importance of the new National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head being scandal free.
Chairperson Dumisa Ntsebeza said it would be an error of judgment for someone with an outstanding complaint against them to be appointed.
“It is important that a person is not only independent, but is seen to be...
30 August 2013
(News)
Prospecting for one of the world's largest platinum mines has already taken farming land from a Limpopo community.
Their future is uncertain and people are getting angrier about living in limbo
In 1994, most South Africans opened the gates to freedom. In that year, Frank Mofokeng* lost his ancestral plot and his only source of income.
One morning he woke up and walked the few kilometres to...
30 August 2013
(News)
Prospecting for one of the world's largest platinum mines has already taken farming land from a Limpopo community.
Their future is uncertain and people are getting angrier about living in limbo
In 1994, most South Africans opened the gates to freedom. In that year, Frank Mofokeng* lost his ancestral plot and his only source of income.
One morning he woke up and walked the few kilometres to...
30 August 2013
(News)
South Africa's legal fraternity and victims of crime are waiting to see whether President Jacob Zuma will appoint a new head to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) by his own deadline of Friday.
Last month, Zuma promised the Constitutional Court he would make an appointment by the end of August, after leaving the post vacant for almost a year.
It’s been claimed Zuma wants to...
14 August 2013
(News)
Several legal organisations and NGOs have opposed a complaint calling for the impeachment of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.
They described the complaint as “ill-considered” in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“The complaint does damage to the much needed project of transformation in the legal profession and threatens to chill the important dialogue about sex, race, sexual...
14 August 2013
(Press release)
The undersigned organisations oppose the recent complaint against the Chief Justice and regard it as ill-considered. The complaint does damage to the much-needed project of transformation in the legal profession and threatens to chill the important dialogue about sex, race, sexual orientation, and gender on the bench, at the bar and side-bar. The Chief Justice's jurisprudence while in this...
13 August 2013
(Press release)
An open letter calling on government to make finances available for the team representing men injured and arrested after the Marikana massacre.
We, the undersigned, call on the government to urgently make financial resources available for the legal team representing the 270 miners injured and arrested following the Marikana massacre on August 16 2012.
The failure to ensure that all interested...
28 July 2013
(News)
South Africa’s top advocates are raking in millions, sparking concerns that the conferral of senior counsel status is “tantamount to a licence to print money”.
Several senior advocates and lawyers who spoke to City Press said South Africa’s top advocates charge as much as R45 000 per day.
At a very conservative estimate of only 15 hours of work per week, at R4...
18 July 2013
(Press release)
As part of this year's Public Interest Law Gathering at Wits University, Lawyers for Human Rights hosted a day-long seminar on The future of asylum in South Africa with panel discussions on the recent shifts in asylum policy, local integration and the government's decision to close and relocate urban refugee centres and the protection challenges caused by ongoing xenophobic attacks on...