Attention: Editors and Reporters

28 September 2023

The SAHRC in Mpumalanga province is hosting a provincial dialogue under the topic: “The impact of homelessness on the right to access adequate housing.” The dialogue is aimed at entrenching a human rights culture deepening and the understanding of human rights in the province, specifically the right to access adequate housing.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

28 September 2023

International discourse on digital literacy and older persons has increased since the 2020 pandemic which accelerated the migration to digital interactions. The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) acknowledges the role emerging technologies and online platforms play in the development of our societal growth and evolution. However, the Commission has noted the social exclusion and limitation of enjoying particular human rights by older persons due to an increasing digital divide known as the “grey digital divide”. South Africa has committed in its Constitution to provide education, freedom of expression and access to information.

27 September 2023

Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC or the Commission) met with the Department of Social Development (DSD) and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) on Friday evening, 23 September 2023. Among the issues canvassed were the recent delay in the payment of grants to a large number of pensioners and persons with disabilities. The precise nature of the switching “glitches” experienced by Post Bank, as well as the important matter of whether those switching glitches will impact the next round of social grant payouts.

21 September 2023

Attention: Editors and Reporters

Land restitution in South Africa is a critical component of the country's broader land reform programme, aimed at addressing historical injustices related to land dispossession. Since the enactment of the Restitution of Land Rights Act No. 22 of 1994, thousands of land claims have been lodged by individuals and communities who were forcibly dispossessed of their land during apartheid. The government has processed and settled many of these claims, resulting in the restoration of land to claimants or the provision of compensation.

20 September 2023

Attention: Editors and Reporters

Farm workers play an important role in the agricultural sector, contributing significantly to food production and food security as well as the economy of our country. However, despite their essential contributions, farm workers often face alarming occupational health and safety challenges that demand immediate attention and intervention.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

20 September 2023

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) in Gauteng will conduct a capacity-building workshop for Human Rights Champions/ Monitors (HRC) in Daveyton, Benoni. This engagement serves as a follow-up to our previous training of champions which took place in 2022.

19 September 2023

Attention: Editors and Reporters

Over the past months, the South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) in the Northern Cape has been actively monitoring the state of health care services in the province to ensure compliance with established standards and has since identified critical issues that require immediate attention.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

19 September 2023

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) in North West to convene a subpoena hearing against the HOD of North West Department of Human Settlements and the Municipal Manager of Ngaka Modiri Local Municipality.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

19 September 2023

The SAHRC in Mpumalanga will be conducting an exhibition on the mandate of the Commission in collaboration with other stakeholders who will also be sharing information on their services to communities in and around Emgcobaneni Trust, Hazyview.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

18 SEPTEMBER 2023

The SAHRC Eastern Cape provincial office will be embarking on various monitoring activities in Amathole District Municipality and Sarah Baartman District Municipality. Section 184 (1) (c) of the South African Constitution states that the Commission must monitor and assess the observance of human rights in the Republic. 

12 September 2023

Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission or SAHRC) together with the South African population at large watched with great shock and dismay as 77 people lost their lives on 31 August 2023 following a fire that broke out at Usindiso in the Johannesburg CBD.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

11 SEPTEMBER 2022

The South African Human Rights Commission in Gauteng will visit Bheki Mlangeni District Hospital on 11 September 2023.

The visit follows the Commission’s investigation in 2021  following media reports that shed light on a number of incidents that brought the safety of patients and staff into question. There were further allegations of maladministration and the ill-treatment of staff at the hospital.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

11 SEPTEMBER  2023

The Gauteng Provincial Office is celebrating International Literacy Day by donating books and human rights materials to a Seitsing Primary School and Mohaung Primary School in Tokoza.

International Literacy Day (ILD) celebrations take place worldwide annually to remind the public of the importance of literacy and to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society. South Africa ranked last out of 57 countries assessed in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which tested the reading ability of 400,000 students globally in 2021.

08 September 2023

Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission in KwaZulu Natal (the Commission) in partnership with the KwaZulu Natal Department of Education (DoE), and other stakeholders, will conduct workshops in preparation for the Provincial Oral Rounds of the National Schools Moot Court Programme (NSMCP). The Commission and DoE following the workshops, will host the Provincial Oral Rounds at the Durban Magistrate Court.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

8 September 2023

The South African Human Rights Commission working in partnership with the Eastern Cape Education Department, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and University of Fort Hare will host the provincial rounds of the National Schools Moot Court Programme (NSMCP) this weekend.  The provincial oral rounds consist of ten (10) participating schools with the aim of selecting a provincial team of four (4) successful schools to represent the Eastern Cape at the national rounds to be held in Gauteng at the Constitutional Court later this year.

06 September 2023

Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission (the SAHRC/ Commission) welcomes the Western Cape Equality Court’s Judgement which was handed down on Monday, 21 August 2023, in the matter of South African Human Rights Commission v Oscar Peter Bougardt.

In 2013, the SAHRC instituted proceedings against Oscar Peter Bougardt (Rev Bougardt) regarding discriminatory statements he made against gay and lesbian people between the period October 2011 and November 2012.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

06 September 2023

The SAHRC Western Cape provincial office working in partnership with the Western Cape Education Department, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, and Legal Aid South Africa hosted the provincial oral rounds of the National Schools Moot Court Programme, at the Paarl  Magistrates Courts on 26 August 2023.  The oral round was a platform used to gauge the participating schools with the aim of selecting a provincial team to represent the Western Cape at the national rounds to be held in Gauteng later this year.

Monday, 04 September 2023

The National Development Plan (NDP) envisions the transformation of human settlements and the spatial economy to create a functionally integrated, balanced, and vibrant urban settlement by 2030. The NDP, however, only refers homeless people once, when stating that the relocation of homeless people should be the responsibility of the Department of Social Development and not the police.

THEME- "GOOD GOVERNANCE STARTS AT HOME’

Attention: Editors and Reporters

04 September 2023

Through an extensive consultation process, the South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) has conceptualised an intervention targeted at modifying the country's current direction, which appears to be at odds with the values of the democratic state, united in its diversity, as the Constitution envisions. A good and harmonious family system is more than just and legacy. Sustainable families and communities adhere to guiding principles that promote trust, accountable power, the advancement of rights, the protection of the vulnerable and open communication. The Social Harmony Through National Effort (SHiNE) project, speaks to good change from the ground up, such as having family meetings to explore minimising sources of disharmony in the home, increasing communal engagement, locating platforms with meaningful connections and ubuntu.