Asylum seekers can now apply for residence visas

Constitutional Court ruling overturns Home Affairs directive By Ohene Yaw Ampofo-Anti If you are an asylum seeker and your application to be a refugee is refused, you are still allowed to apply for a visa. The Constitutional Court ruled this in a unanimous judgment handed down in October. Background The case was brought by three asylum seekers whose applications for refugee status had been refused. They...

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Xolobeni judgment is vital to land debate

Gwede Mantashe is concerned about mining being halted, but the judgment is an incentive for the industry to change the way it operates By Wilmien Wicomb South Africans have spent much of 2018 debating whether the Constitution must be amended to explicitly provide for expropriation of land without compensation. Lost in this debate is the reality that thousands of South Africans have...

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Wild Coast mine blocked by Pretoria court

Government and companies must obtain “full and informed” consent from communities before granting mining rights, says judge By Zoë Postman In a landmark judgment on Thursday morning, the North Gauteng High Court ruled that the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has to obtain “full and informed” consent from communities under customary law before granting mining rights to companies. Members of the Amadiba Crisis...

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Activists lose bid to stop coal mine

Interdict application to halt operations at the Somkhele coal mine thrown out with costs By Fred Kockott A high court bid to close down Somkhele coal mine on the border of Hlhulhuwe-iMfolozi Park in KwaZulu-Natal was yesterday dismissed with costs. The interdict application to halt operations at the Somkhele coal mine – one of the country’s largest suppliers of anthracite – was brought...

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What does the Constitutional Court’s judgment on protests mean?

The ruling will help people hold peaceful protests without fear of getting criminal records By Wilmien Wicomb On Monday, after five years of court battles, ten people who protested without permission in 2013 finally could rest easy that they would not get criminal records. Here’s an explanation of what the Constitutional Court judgment in the case known as SJC10 means. Section 17 of the Bill...

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Concourt judgment affirms right to protest without permission

Ten Social Justice Coalition members who chained themselves to Cape Town civic centre will not have criminal records 19 November 2018   By Zoë Postman The Constitutional Court has ruled that the failure to give notice of a protest should not be made a criminal offense. The judgement, delivered on Monday morning in a case that has become known as the SJC10, was unanimous....

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In Johannesburg you have to pay to picket. Activists have had enough

Right2Know leads march against municipality’s protest fees By Zoë Postman Dozens of people marched from John Ross Park to the Johannesburg City Council in Braamfontein on Friday morning, to protest the municipality’s charging of fees to protest. The protest was led by Right2Know (R2K). R2K demanded that the municipality stop charging fees for protests immediately. The group demanded the right to give notice of...

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Three ways to improve justice in South Africa

Our court system is frustrating, slow and technologically backward  By GroundUp Editors South Africans are rightly proud of our independent judiciary. It has, with some notable individual exceptions, avoided the descent into corruption and disintegration of state institutions that took place in the Zuma era. But our court system is frustrating, slow and technologically backward. This is unnecessary. Here are some ways it...

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Six years later Constitutional Court orders Woolies to reinstate retrenched workers

Woolworths should have considered alternatives, says country’s highest court By Mluleki Marongo Dozens of workers retrenched by Woolworths in 2012 must be reinstated. The Constitutional Court ordered this on 6 November, nearly six years after the retrenchment. The case was between the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (SACCAWU) and Woolworths. Woolworths employees used to work full-time for the company, 45 hours a...

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Court overturns state’s approval of controversial coal mine

Punitive costs award against state By John Yeld The government’s hush-hush approval last year of a new coal mine within a critical biodiversity and water conservation area in Mpumalanga has been reversed by the North Gauteng High Court. In a judgment handed down in Pretoria on Thursday, an application by a coalition of eight environmental and social justice groups for the review and...

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