10 May 2019

Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) will convene a second sitting of the inquiry into the violent protests that erupted in Alexandra Township earlier this year .This inquiry will form part of the Commission’s investigation into the possible violation of basic human rights and allegations of maladministration and improper conduct concerning the Alexandra Renewal Project.

5 Apr 2019
    
The Constitution of South Africa provides for justiciable socio-economic rights. The right of access to adequate housing is one of the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights in section 26 of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court in Jaftha v Schoeman and Others, Van Rooyen v Stoltz and Others 2005 (2) SA 140 (CC) stated the importance of the right of access to adequate housing in the following terms:
“Section 26 must be seen as making that decisive break from the past. It emphasises the importance of adequate housing and in particular security of tenure in our new constitutional democracy. The indignity suffered as a result of evictions from homes, forced removals and the relocation to land often wholly inadequate for housing needs has to be replaced with a system in which the state must strive to provide access to adequate housing for all and, where that exists, refrain from permitting people to be removed unless it can be justified.”

Tuesday, 07 May 2019

Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission (“the Commission”) welcomes yesterday’s judgment by the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court (sitting as the Equality Court), which ruled that the slogan “Land or Death” amounts to hate speech in terms of section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 (”the Equality Act”) and in terms of section 16 (2) (c) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (“the Constitution”).

15 April 2019

The South African Human Rights Commission has called Gauteng MEC for sport, arts, culture and recreation Faith Mazibuko to appear before it on Tuesday to clarify comments she made in a "rant" that was leaked to the public in an audio recording.
The commission said it became aware, through various social media platforms, of the widely circulated recording of a meeting held by Mazibuko in which she lambasted senior managers for failing to deliver sports facilities known as "combi courts", purportedly to bolster support for the ANC ahead of the elections on May 8.

14 April 2019

The commission has called on political parties not to use the troubled area as an election campaign tool.
 
JOHANNESBURG – The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says the plight of residents in Alexandra should be addressed by the government.
The commission has called on political parties not to use the troubled area as an election campaign tool.

12 April 2019
 
JOHANNESBURG - The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says the Red Ants often violate people's rights when they carry out evictions.
The commission is investigating after two people died during violent clashes between shack dwellers and the Red Ants in Rustervaal, Vereeniging, earlier this week during an eviction operation.

10 April 2019
 
The public protector and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Wednesday said they were to combine efforts in a bid to get to the bottom of service delivery complaints that have given rise to recent violent protests in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg.
Alexandra residents have been protesting over poor service delivery since last week.

11 April 2019

You can say no to corporal punishment
Have you been a victim of corporal punishment at Paarl Boys' High School?
If you have or if you have witnessed it, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) wants to hear from you as it probes recent claims at the request of the Western Cape Department of Education.

10 April 2019

JOHANNESBURG - The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) will today conduct a fact-finding mission at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Driefontein mine in Carletonville amid the four-and-a-half-month wage strike that has claimed nine lives.
The visit comes after employees and community members approached the commission to raise concerns that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) led strike could lead to another Marikana tragedy like that of mid-August 2012.

Fifteen thousand miners affiliated to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union downed tools at Sibanye's gold operations in November after rejecting the company's wage offer.
 
10 April 2019
 
JOHANNESBURG - The four-month-long strike at Sibanye-Stillwater mines has caught the attention of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).