“This agreement can never make full redress for the loss and harm suffered by gold mine workers and their families and communities over the last 100 years,” says judge By Tania Broughton There was a lot of “give and take” from both sides, but the settlement agreement, which has resulted in a R5 billion compensation fund for gold miners afflicted with Silicosis...

Farm workers in the Western Cape winelands are still living in single-sex hostels at Oak Valley, as they were during apartheid. Now they are taking legal action. By Ra’eesa Pather In the pristine lands of one of the Western Cape’s best known farms, workers are restless. After months of negotiations and protest action, they have filed a court application for a...

No mining will take place in Mabola Protected Environment for now By John Yeld The Supreme Court of Appeal has dismissed an attempt by coal mining company Atha-Africa Ventures to appeal a High Court decision that reversed the hush-hush government approval it had for its proposed coal mine in an environmentally sensitive area in Mpumalanga. Atha-Africa, a local subsidiary of India-based transnational mining...

Ruling has implications for the legal concept of derivative misconduct By Wilmien Wicomb On 22 August 2012 a group of Dunlop employees started a protected strike that soon turned violent. Despite an interdict and the intervention of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa at the time, the violence escalated. On 26 September 2012 all the employees who participated in the...

Case goes to the heart of the fundamental rights of access to basic education guaranteed by the Constitution, says judge By Tania Broughton They have been fighting a battle for 20 years, but now there is an end in sight for a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal who have obtained a supervisory court order forcing education authorities to finally build them a secondary...

Asked for comment, Impact Loss Control threatened legal action By Joseph Chirume Employees of a Port Elizabeth security company went on a strike on Tuesday. They are demanding the company allow their union to be recognised. They are also demanding an improvement in their working conditions. About 20 security guards of Impact Loss Control sang outside the company premises in Markman industrial area....

Environmental and activist groups appeal decision By John Yeld Government has given Australian-owned Tormin mine the go-ahead to vastly expand its current extraction of mineral sands on ten additional West Coast beaches and on an inland strip of old beach adjoining the existing mine near Lutzville. It has also condoned illegal activities by the mine, for which its owner Mineral Sands Resources (MSR)...

“The non-responsiveness by Home Affairs left no room for us to engage with them” By Tariro Washinyira The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) is asking the Western Cape High Court to order the Department of Home Affairs to commit to a deadline to reopen its Cape Town Refugee Reception Office. The legal battle between refugee organisations and Home Affairs began in 2012 when Home Affairs closed...

Survivors of rape need better support within the criminal justice system, say civil society organisations By Mary-Anne Gontsana “We need a sexual offences court in Khayelitsha immediately,” Nombulelo Sithilanga of Thuthuzela Care Centre told a panel discussion at the Isivivana Centre last month. According to Crime Stats SA, 444 sexual offences cases, including 367 cases of rape, were opened at the three main...