Attention: Editors and Reporters
Wednesday, 25 June 2025

June is commemorated as the Environment Month in recognition of the central role of the environment to human existence. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has remained concerned about environmental challenges and has continued to monitor the implementation of the right to an environment that is not harmful to one’s health and wellbeing.

Thursday, 19 June 2025
Attention: Editors and Reporters 

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC/ the Commission) in the Northern Cape Province will be hosting two high-level stakeholder engagements as part of its strategic efforts to strengthen partnerships, promote constitutional values, and advance the realisation of human rights in the province.

Attention: Editors and Reporters
Thursday, 19 June 2025

As South Africa approaches the fourth anniversary of the July 2021 Unrest, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC/the Commission) remains deeply concerned by the slow pace of justice regarding criminal incidents that unfolded during that period. Drawing on its investigative findings and the final report titled “July’s People”, the Commission underscores its commitment to ensuring accountability, and transparency, in post-unrest prosecutions.

The SAHRC’s July 2021 report found that the violence in Phoenix and surrounding areas during the unrest was not random, but racially motivated, with African people targeted and attacked. Despite claims that groups of African people carrying pangas posed a threat, this narrative was not substantiated by any of the available evidence. The Commission remains concerned that these claims were racially charged fabrications that fuelled vigilante violence. The Commission has also received evidence of racially motivated mistreatment in custody, where Phoenix unrest suspects were attacked in holding cells by other inmates allegedly seeking retribution.

A total of twelve unrest-related criminal matters were heard at the Verulam Magistrate Court. Six inquests related to Phoenix deaths were also conducted. Disturbingly, all six inquests were concluded informally, without public hearings. These informal procedures, while legally permissible, fall short of delivering the level of transparency and public accountability warranted by the severity of the July Unrest atrocities.

One unresolved murder case from the unrest remains on the court roll and is scheduled to be heard at the Verulam Magistrate Court today, on 19 June 2025. The Commission will attend the court proceedings on a watching brief, represented by Commissioner Philile Ntuli in her role as one of the July Unrest Inquiry panellists. This watching brief forms part of various activities being undertaken by the Commission to monitor the implementation of the July Unrest Report recommendations.

The SAHRC is also actively considering its legal options to request the judiciary to convene formal and public inquests into the July unrest deaths, particularly those arising in Phoenix and surrounding areas, including Khan Road Corner, in Pietermaritzburg. The SAHRC calls on the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the judiciary, and all branches of government to commit to restoring public confidence in the justice system by ensuring that the truth surrounding the events that occurred in July 2021 is uncovered through public, formal legal processes.

ENDS

Attention: Editors and Reporters
Date: 20 June 2025

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is outraged by reports that workers of the humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers were allegedly threatened and intimidated on 14 June 2025 whilst providing essential aid to flood victims in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape Province.

SAHRC position on the Expropriation Act

Attention: Editors and Reporters
Wednesday, 18 June 2025

The South African Human Rights Commission (Commission / SAHRC) has observed, with concern, public discourse at national and global platforms, whereby the Expropriation Act (No. 13 of 2024) (hereafter “Expropriation Act”) is portrayed as a key component of South Africa’s land reform agenda. The position of the SAHRC is that the Expropriation Act does not clarify the conditions for equitable redistribution of land. Neither does it present a compensation framework that is historically sensitive. It merely delineates the procedures and conditions under which the State may acquire privately owned land.

Attention: Editors and Reporters
Wednesday, 18 June 2025

On Thursday 12 June 2025, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) through its Free State Provincial Office (FSPO) was granted a court order by the Free State High Court against the Masilonyana Local Municipality and its Municipal Manager who were cited as the first and second respondents in the matter.

Attention Editors and Reporters
Monday, 16 June 2025

As the country commemorates National Youth Day, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC/Commission) honours the bravery of the youth of 1976 who dared the apartheid government to protest against its policy of forcing Afrikaans as the language of instruction in Black schools.

Attention: Editors and Reporters 
Sunday, 15 June 2025

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has taken note of social-media messages urging violent “operations” on 16 June 2025 against foreign nationals. We have already alerted the National Commissioner of Police and will keep these calls under close watch, reserving the right to pursue charges under the Cybercrimes Act 19 of 2020 should they amount to criminal incitement. 

Makhanda High Court Judgment on scholar transport