Media Statement

Attention: Editors and Reporters

19 June 2020

The South African Human Rights Commission (the SAHRC or the Commission) notes with interest an important research paper released on 16 June 2020 by academics Servaas van der Berg and Nic Spaull University of Stellenbosch.   
Van Der Berg & Spaull 2020 Counting the Cost – COVID-19, Children and Schooling (15 June 2020)

Attention: Editors and Reporters

15th June 2020

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC or Commission) will be commemorating Youth Day on Tuesday, the 16th June 2020, along with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Movement for One South Africa (MOSA), the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), Democratic Alliance Youth (DA Youth) and a veteran youth activist from the 1976 Youth uprising.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

16^th June 2020

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC or Commission) will be commemorating Youth Day on Tuesday, the 16^th June 2020, along with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Movement for One South Africa (MOSA), the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), Democratic Alliance Youth (DA Youth) and a veteran youth activist from the 1976 Youth uprising.

Attention: Editors and Reporters
Thursday, 11 June 2020

The Constitutional Court handed down a judgment today in a case brought by the New Nation Movement and others that declares the Electoral Act unconstitutional in its setting a limitation for individual adult citizens to stand for public office and be elected to national and provincial legislatures as independent candidates. The current Act only allows for independent candidates to contest for local government. The ability to stand for public office is a fundamental right that is guaranteed in section 19 (3) of the Constitution. It provides that every adult citizen has the right to stand for public office and, if elected, to hold office.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

7 June 2020

The South African Human Rights Commission (the SAHRC or the Commission) welcomes the commitment of all stakeholders, including government, unions and school governing body associations, to the opening of schools for Grade 7 and 12 learners on 8 June 2020.

05 May 2020

The Human Rights Commission has expressed concern with the challenges experienced in the payment of social grants to pensioners and people with disabilities.

06 May 2020
 
In Khayelitsha today hundreds of people stood in a long queue while 50 people were let into the supermarket at a time to redeem their monthly grant from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is "deeply concerned" about the circumstances around the provision of grants to the elderly and disabled on Monday.

06 May 2020

Johannesburg - The South African Human Right Commission (SAHRC) has called on the black woman who was called a k****r by a white woman during an altercation following a bumper bash in Gauteng to open a case.

9 May 2020

Cape Town - The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has urged government to ensure that all people who have been arrested for petty offences under the coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown regulations be released and warned to appear in court on a future date.
The SAHRC welcomed the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa this week on the decision to place on parole selected categories of sentenced offenders, the commission said in a statement.

10 May 2020
 
JOHANNESBURG - The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Saturday welcomed the government’s decision to grant parole to at least 19,000 inmates in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.