Sep
05
2019
The REFA Festival is back on the 6th of September 2019
After a highly successful inaugural Festival in 2018 that saw 450 people from South Africa and around the world attending...
The second Rethinking Economics for Africa (REFA) Festival is just two short months away!
The REFA Festival brings together academics, students, activists, policymakers, researchers and members of the public into a...
Sep
04
2019
Casual Workers Advice Office vows to continue its work
By Zoë Postman
In the midst of xenophobic attacks on mostly immigrant-owned shops in Germiston, Johannesburg, non-profit organisation Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO) was looted and set alight on Monday evening.
Shattered glass and CWAO cards were strewn across the pavement outside the office. On Tuesday afternoon, CWAO staff members were cleaning up the...
Sep
04
2019
Employees of the Expanded Public Works Programme have essentially become ‘permanent casuals’ who earn a pittance and have no job security or collective bargaining power.
By Anna Majavu
For the past 12 years, about 150 people have swept the streets and cleared blocked drains in Uitenhage and Motherwell. They work in a government-funded programme administered by the Eastern Cape Department of...
Sep
03
2019
The state’s case against the family of drowned schoolboy is “insensitive”, says Justice Navsa
By Ciaran Ryan
The Limpopo education department came in for sharp criticism from Supreme Court of Appeal judge Mahomed Navsa on Monday over the death of four year-old Michael Komape in a school pit toilet in 2014.
“The Department has not exactly covered itself in glory with respect to...
Aug
30
2019
But bill has been waiting for the president to sign it into law since at least April
By Linda Daniels
Aphiwe Nomandla is a second year computer science student at the University of the Western Cape. To date, the cost of prescribed textbooks for his course ranged from R799 to R3,985. He said most students could not afford to buy the required...
Aug
29
2019
A Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling has found that municipalities were in breach of the Constitution in not providing labour tenants and farm occupiers with essential and basic services.
By Musawenkosi Cabe
The recent high court judgment declaring that three municipalities in Pietermaritzburg must provide water, sanitation and waste collection on farms has been hailed as a victory for farm dwellers across...
Aug
23
2019
One complaint alleges state capture. The other alleges racism and sexism.
By Barbara Maregele
Judge Neil Tuchten wrote: “Judge Makhubele ought not to undertake any judicial duties until she clears her name of the allegations against her.” Judge Tintswalo Annah Nana Makhubele responded by lodging a complaint against him with the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) that alleges racism and sexism. Then commuter...
Aug
22
2019
Old flag should only be displayed for “genuine artistic, academic or journalistic expression in the public interest”
By Ohene Yaw Ampofo-Anti
The gratuitous display of the old South African flag now constitutes hate speech. This is according to a ruling by Judge Phineas Mojapelo in the Equality Court which sat in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
This means that the display of the old South...
Aug
21
2019
Appointing a special master to assist the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is not judicial overreach
By Zoë Postman and Wilmien Wicomb
Labour tenants scored a major victory in the Constitutional Court on Tuesday. A majority of judges in the court upheld the Land Claims Court’s (LCC) order to appoint a special master to assist the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to...
Aug
19
2019
Legal experts have questioned the interdict granted to a group of Eastern Cape farmers, saying it unjustifiably limits the farm workers’ constitutional right to speak out against alleged poor treatment.
By: Anna Majavu
The high court in April granted commercial farmers in the Eastern Cape an interdict against farm workers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the area. But it has been described...