By Patricia Erasmus It is a lawyer’s worst nightmare — having to watch your client die. But this was the reality for our staff when an Ethiopian man was brought to us in the final stages of double renal failure. As he lay in the parking lot of our offices, disorientated, weak and struggling to […]
Lawyers for Human Rights
Posted inNews/Politics
The difficulty with De Kock
By Clare Ballard By not releasing apartheid’s most notorious assassin, De Kock, we have released all those who benefitted from his actions … — Tshepo Madlingozi On Thursday, Justice Minister Michael Masutha conveyed his decision to refuse former death squad commander Eugene de Kock’s application for parole to the public. His decision, although unsurprising, is […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Condemned to obscurity: The state of our population register and the right to vote
By Liesl Muller I recently attended an election-observer training session in preparation for next month’s elections. I was inspired by the chance to play my part in the democratic process shaping the future of our country. Voting is an opportunity many South Africans did not have in the years before democracy and which South Africans […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
How will our society be measured on corruption?
Rita* fled the Democratic Republic of Congo to South Africa in 2009 after suffering unspeakable horrors and grave violations to her rights amid ongoing violence. The department of home affairs immediately recognised her as a refugee but when she was asked to pay a large amount of money to receive her refugee permit, Rita refused […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Denying it’s xenophobia isn’t helping
By David Cote The recent attacks against foreign nationals, particularly those operating shops in townships and informal settlements, have sent shivers down the spines of many in South Africa and across the continent. It has been five years since coordinated attacks exploded across the country and led to the deaths of 64 people and the […]
Posted inEquality, General
Five years on and no closer to solving xenophobic hatred
By Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh May marks five years since the xenophobic attacks that shocked the nation. But what has happened since then? Are we better prepared to deal with criminality of that scale than we were five years ago? The simple answer is no. South Africa — in its 19 year democratic history — had never […]
Posted inGeneral
Resurrecting the water tribunal
By Wayne Ncube The dissolution of the Water Tribunal nine months ago created a fair amount of controversy and now that the water and environmental department is reviving the administrative body, the question is whether it will be any more effective than it was before. The Tribunal is a specialised administrative body meant to provide […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Stateless: Protecting the right to nationality
By Jessica P George Recent and upcoming changes to the law on citizenship and birth registration in South Africa show that there is still a long way to go to protect the right to nationality. Some recent amendments in fact create new barriers to nationality and exacerbate statelessness — when a person is not recognised […]