28 Mar 2024

Two dedicated activists from KwaZuluNatal have been honoured by the South African Human Rights Commission SAHRC for their unwavering commitment to humanitarian efforts in the local community. Roshan Jainath, who helped rebuild the Khan Road informal settlement, which suffered damage during the July 2021 unrest when shacks were torched, said that he was humbled to receive this award. "It was a collective effort with the Peace and Development Forum that rebuilt the informal settlement.

26 Mar 2024

The Town Hill Hospital's ageing infrastructure was brought under the microscope after the South African Human Rights Commission SAHRC visited the institution yesterday. SAHRC commissioners are in the province over the next few days to conduct impromptu, unannounced visits at some institutions as part of their initiative to prevent and monitor if torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishments are taking place at the facilities. The commission's national preventative mechanism NPM is also monitoring the conditions of the buildings and found that the Town Hill Hospital, which is a specialised psychiatric hospital in Pietermaritzburg, was old and the infrastructure was in need of maintenance and upgrading.

22 Mar 2024

In his Human Rights Day address yesterday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the critics of load shedding should cut government some slack because under apartheid a lot of people were denied electricity. The president said this while delivering his keynote address at the George Thabe Cricket Pitch in Sharpeville yesterday, following a wreathlaying ceremony at the Sharpeville Memorial earlier. The annual celebrations commemorates the gunning down of 69 antiapartheid protesters in Sharpeville on March 21,1960.

21 Mar 2024

The South African Human Rights Commission SAHRC is weighing its options in a case where a Woodlands woman was heard saying she has had enough of "these natives". In the voice note shared in a Woodlands WhatsApp group, and addressed to area councillor Garth Middleton, who is also a group member, the woman can be heard ranting about how they used to live without worrying about water outages because they were "run properly" by the "boer ous". SAHRC provincial manager Pavershree Padayachee yesterday told The Witness that she had listened to the voice note and that the commission will look into the matter.

07 Mar 2024

AHRC calls for gentlerneutral school uniforms Uniform and appearance policies infringe on pupils' rights to dignity, says human rights commission The South African Human Rights Commission SAHRC has found that in certain circumstances, school uniform and appearance policies infringe on pupils' rights to dignity in South African schools. Commissioner of the SAHRC, Professor Tshepo Madlingozi presented the SAHRC school uniform report's findings and recommendations during a parliament briefing before the portfolio committee of Basic Education on Tuesday. "After noting an increase in reports of alleged overregulation of the school uniform and appearances of pupils, the commission, through its Eastern Cape provincial office resolved to not only further investigate these matters, but also host an inquiry into allegations of discrimination against pupils in this regard," said Madlingozi.

11 March 2024

SHACK dwellers organisation, Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement, has welcomed recent developments in its attempts to find justice for its members who have been killed and targeted in apparent political violence. The SA Human Rights Commission SAHRC has announced that a police task team has been established to investigate the string of murders of members of the civic organisation. The commission wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa in June last year, seeking the intervention of justice, crime prevention and security agencies in what they said were persistent human rights violations reported by the organisation and its members. In 2022, Abahlali experienced multiple killings of its activists, especially in KwaZuluNatal.

11 Mar 2024

THE eThekwini Municipality has denied allegations of internal sabotage after it was revealed in a town hall meeting called by the SA Human Rights Commission SAHRC to discuss water challenges in the city last week that a valve at the Mountview Reservoir in Verulam has a locked chain on it. This comes in the midst of ongoing water outages in the area, among others in the city, that have resulted in multiple protests by affected residents who say their constitutional rights are being violated.

17 March 2024

ON THE INCREASE IN SA Political and taxirelated killings are worsening and experts say the paymasters get away with murder KILLED A screenshot captured by a CCTV camera of the night AKA was assassinated in Durban I think there is a sense among many of the people involved in the killings that they can act with impunity Assassinations have become the method of choice for eliminating someone in South Africa and policing experts are alarmed by the boldness of the hits with bodyguards no longer a deterrent for hitmen and the impunity of the perpetrators.

22 Mar 2024

ASYLUMseekers living along a pavement in Bellville who were evicted from Paint City last year have asked to be relocated to a safer place after a taxi injured a woman. It has been five months since the group of around 150 people were evicted from the shelter. They have been living on Robert Sobukwe Drive, outside the shelter, since October. The asylumseekers first illegally occupied the Methodist Church on Greenmarket Square in 2019, and around 600 were then placed in Bellville.

24 March 2024

IT IS WIDELY established that human rights are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Similarly, consensus exists that water is the source of all life and therefore the right to water is the force that sustains the intrinsic connectedness of all human rights.

However, in South Africa this vital right is under siege due substantially to neglected infrastructure.The nation is grappling with a growing crisis as the availability of this essential resource increasingly diminishes – leading to inequalities
and adversities. The unfolding crisis is on full display in the rising number of community protests against water shortages. In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, communities living in the eThekwini Metropolitan are particularly despondent with increasing reports of water protests. In recent months, there have been increased protest action in areas such as Phoenix, KwaXimba, Verulam, KwaNyuswa and oThongathi, among others.