The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), campaigning groups and labour supporting members of the European parliament this month launched protests about the continued harassment and jailing of trade unionists and democracy campaigners in Swaziland. ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow has noted that, in Swaziland, “Violations against the fundamental rights of workers have become systemic.”
Terry Bell
Opinion | 13 April 2015
A Land Claims Court judge could opt to jail the Director-General of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, Mdu Shabane, for contempt of court. Such a decision, however, may still be too late for Zabalaza Mshengu, who turned 101 in January, and has waited 14 years for his claim to land as a labour tenant to be processed. The case also raises uncomfortable questions about how far government will go to push judicial tolerance in order to avoid implementing constitutional rights.
Donna Hornby
Opinion | 13 April 2015
Equal Education’s recently concluded sleep-in protests in three cities have shown how disturbingly difficult it has become to hold legal protests, even for organisations fortunate enough to have access to resources and legal expertise.
Doron Isaacs
Opinion | 10 April 2015
There was chaos in Khayelitsha on Wednesday with battles between police and residents occupying land, and shops being looted. Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Khayelitsha have distanced themselves from the looting, but residents say it was led by people wearing EFF T-shirts and berets.
Text by Nombulelo Damba. Photos by Masixole Feni.
Feature | 9 April 2015
The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) has asked the Mayor for a plan to deal with sanitation in informal settlements. We have a plan – one that has already been and continues to be implemented as part of this administration’s commitment to making this a city that delivers services to all our residents. Perhaps that is why so many people flock here from other parts of the country every year. After all, no one packs up their family and leaves their hometown for a worse life!
Ian Neilson
Opinion | 8 April 2015
Anger and frustration was written on the faces of All Stars football players when a group of TR Informal Settlement residents allegedly led by Economic Freedom Fighters took over their playgrounds on Tuesday morning.
Nombulelo Damba
News | 7 April 2015
On 2 April activists and sex workers held a protest at the Perceiving Freedom sculpture in Seapoint to commemorate the 2003 Sizzlers Massacre and raise awareness of the need to decriminalise sex work.
Abigail McDougall
News | 7 April 2015
There are protests outside the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court this morning, as a trial of health workers resumes amidst widespread dissatisfaction with the Free State health system and MEC Benny Malakoane.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 30 March 2015
The defamation trial of Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, accused of libelling seven of the country’s military generals in a book he wrote, kicked off in Luanda on Tuesday. The generals are suing him for defamation – which could cost him $1.2-million in damages and nine years in prison -- after he had asked for them to be investigated for human rights abuses he first exposed in a book.
Pharie Sefali
News | 27 March 2015
The Eastern Cape government has failed to even acknowledge a petition from a group of housing project beneficiaries. What options does this leave aggrieved citizens, asks Mimosa Delgaro?
Mimosa Delgaro
Opinion | 20 March 2015
After a four year delay, the hearing in the case of 39 workers dismissed from Robertson Abattoir started in the Cape Town Labour Court this week.
Daneel Knoetze
Brief | 18 March 2015
Freedom of speech is a fundamental right recognised in our constitution. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to allow that speech anywhere you want to make it.
Kevin Charleston
Opinion | 18 March 2015
An old dispute over representing the family legacy of Khomani San leader Dawid Kruiper has resurfaced in a public furore between writer Patricia Glyn and filmmaker Richard Wicksteed.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 17 March 2015
A consumer activist who runs a blog exposing misleading claims about health products has been forced to move his website offshore after a run-in with sports supplement company USN.
Barbara Maregele
News | 17 March 2015
Civil war, betrayal and murder are what Asad Abdullahi left behind in his childhood to travel thousands of kilometres to the land of Mandela, the country of his dreams. But in South Africa he’d experience violence unlike anywhere else in Africa. Mandy de Waal speaks to Jonny Steinberg about his new book ‘A Man of Good Hope’.
Mandy de Waal
News | 17 March 2015
Not wishing to sound derivative I was left grasping for fresh superlatives when I finished reading Askari. Earlier reviewers had already hailed this latest offering by Jacob Dlamini in terms with which I wholly agreed.
Terry Bell
News | 16 March 2015