Programme News
12 December 2018
(Press release)
On Thursday 13 December Lawyers for Human Rights will oppose an application in the Pretoria High Court on behalf of a large group of waste pickers or recyclers. The recyclers are facing imminent eviction from their homes where they have lived for periods ranging from a few weeks to over 16 years. Their accommodation is made of modest shelters constructed out of plastic sheets and cardboard. They...
30 November 2018
(Press release)
Judge Norman Davis handed down judgment today in the Pretoria High Court, in the contempt application brought by Lawyers for Human Rights against the Minister of Defence, the Chief of the SA Army and the Officer Commanding Marievale base.
Judge Norman Davis began with a repetition of the introduction to the original judgment of 9 May 2018:
“This is yet another one of those cases where...
28 November 2018
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights is pleased to note the ground-breaking judgment handed down today by the Supreme Court of Appeal in favour of the Grootkraal Community.
The judgment paves the way for other historically disadvantaged communities, who have used private land for a significant time, to be allowed to register this use against the title deed. This has the result that any sale of the...
21 November 2018
(Press release)
Today marks a year after about 150 civilian families that had been residing in old houses of a defunct military base known as Marievale village were violently and unlawfully evicted from their homes by armed soldiers late in 2017 leading up to the festive season. On 9 May 2018, Judge Norman Davis granted an order declaring the evictions illegal and ordering that the evicted families be restored...
25 October 2018
(Press release)
Today the Constitutional Court handed down a judgement on the matter between the Lesethleng Village Community and the Pilanesburg Platinum Mine (PPM). Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) represented the Lesethleng Village Community in an application for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court against an eviction order granted by the North West High Court in favour of Pilanesburg Platinum Mine (PPM...
23 October 2018
(Press release)
On 10 February 2017, a group of about 287 informal traders from Mamelodi Denneboom Metrorail station obtained a court order in their favour against the City of Tshwane and Isibonelo Property Services (the developers of the new mall at Denneboom station worth R850 m). The order was sought on an urgent basis after the City and Isibonelo had embarked on an aggressive constructive eviction of the...
11 September 2018
(Press release)
On 9 May 2018, Judge Norman Davis handed down judgment in the Pretoria High Court in favour of the residents of Marievale who had been violently and unlawfully evicted from their homes by members of SANDF during November and December 2017. The court ordered that the evicted families must be restored to their homes within 30 days of granting the order, and where restoration was not possible, SANDF...
10 September 2018
(Press release)
Today, Monday 10 September 2018, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will be at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein to appeal against the judgement of J Sutherland handed down in April 2017 in the Gauteng Local Division.
In the case of S Ngomane and 27 Others vs The City of Johannesburg and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police (‘JMPD’), the Land & Housing Unit of...
26 June 2018
(Press release)
It is with the greatest concern that Lawyers for Human Rights notes the intention of the Dawid Kruiper Municipality to illegally evict 16 Congolese and Burundian foreign nationals from their current place of safety – a shelter that the Municipality had provided for them. The foreign nationals are victims of xenophobic attacks that occurred in Mapoteng Kathu on the 26th June 2018 which...
23 May 2018
(Press release)
LHR represents the Lesethleng Village Community in an application for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court against an eviction order granted by the North West High Court in favour of Pilanesburg Platinum Mine (PPM).
Over a century ago in 1916, thirteen families in the Lesethleng Village Community decided to buy the farm Wilgespruit (“Modimo Mmalo”) in the district...