16th November 2018
Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) will convene the second session of the inquiry into allegations of approximately 150 megalitres of raw sewage spilling into the Vaal River daily.

ATTENTION: Editors and Reporters

21 NOVEMBER 2018

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) Gauteng Provincial Office in collaboration with the Network or African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI), will host a National Consultation on the African Commission Principles on Decriminalisation of Petty Offences in Africa.

Attention: Editors and Reporters

20 November 2018

On 20 – 22 November 2018, the South African Human Rights Commission (“the Commission”) will be hosting capacity building workshops to amplify basic human rights awareness with the specific focus to the right of access to courts enshrined in section 34 read with sections 38 and 39 of the Constitution. The workshops are centered under the theme “My Right to Use Courts Responsibly”, and are intended to equip rural communities with information on the content of the right of access to courts.

15^th November 2018

Attention: Editors and Reporters

South Africa ratified the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), two decades after it was signed by former President Nelson Mandela. In terms of the Convention, South Africa presented its report about how it was faring in making rights a reality on 12 October 2018 to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The South African Human Rights Commission (Commission), which also has a standing with the United Nations Committee provided its own independent report about the level of progress achieved by the State under the Convention. 

Attention: Editors and Reporters

14 November 2018

On 16-18 November 2018 the South African Human Rights Commission will host roadshows in the Dihlabeng Local Municipality.

In the last financial year the Free State Provincial Office visited the Thabo Mofutsanyane District Municipality. The sites visited highlighted the need to intensify human rights awareness campaigns in rural and far-flung areas of the province. During the visits, the delegation of the Free State Office established that there has been an upsurge in farm evictions and many farm dwellers in these areas visited face many challenges when they are evicted illegally with their homes often being destroyed upon eviction.

14 November 2018

Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba has apologised for his comments following a citizen’s arrest of a man transporting cow heads.
Mashaba faced a lot of backlash after tweeting that he had arrested a man who was transporting cow heads on a trolley.
Among other comments he made, Mashaba said at the time that the meat also posed a potential risk of an ebola outbreak.
He was lambasted for, among others, embarrassing a person who was attempting to make a living through the selling of the meat. Others said that instead of ridiculing the man, he should have called in health inspectors and experts to advise him on how he can make his business more professional.

8 November 2018

Cape Town – Bullying at schools has come under the spotlight again as a Woodstock mother approached the SA Human Right Commission (SAHRC) for help. This as another took to social media in a desperate bid for intervention for her child.

Jamielah Kagee said her son, a Grade 5 pupil at Rahmaniyeh Primary School in Zonnebloem, had suffered physical abuse from fellow pupils since he started at the school this year, and although she had taken it up with the school’s management, the situation had stayed the same.
Kagee said the alleged incidents had landed her and the school in court on two occasions and another court case was pending. “I’ve been to the school so many times... it’s affecting him, he cries in his sleep and he’s lost a lot of weight,” Kagee said.

9 November 2018

Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa will be subpoenaed by the SAHRC as part of its investigation into the deaths of nine babies at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Baby Hospital in Gauteng.
The infants died as a result of a deadly bacteria outbreak at the hospital earlier this year.
Now the commission is demanding answers.

10 November 2018

The hospital violated the right to access healthcare and section 28 of the constitution‚ which says the best interests of children are of paramount importance‚ the HRC says.

Management of the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Coronationville‚ Johannesburg‚ has conceded that it violated patients’ rights to high-quality healthcare after nine babies died there earlier in 2018.

10 November 2018

JOHANNESBURG - The Human Rights Commission has called on the parents of nine infants who died at a Johannesburg hospital to come forward.