Activists believe a radical “new normal” is needed for land reform By Kyla Hazell and Nkosikhona Swartbooi Three parcels of public land stand out from recent land contestation in Cape Town. One is the King David Mowbray Golf Course. One is the Tafelberg Site in Sea Point. And the other is an occupied plot in Ethembeni, Khayelitsha. Two of these sites were considered “surplus”...

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) – LHR is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental human rights organization, with a 40 year history of using the law as a positive instrument for change for their clients, and in the public interest. LHR employs a multi-pronged approach to rights enforcement, including community mobilization, education, policy advocacy initiatives, and strategic litigation driven by the...

Achieving coherence in land governance remains a challenge in South Africa. Attempts to  reconcile diverse claims involve trade-offs and compromises. South Africa finds itself locked in these policy processes to mobilise and consolidate the diverse stakeholders in land governance. Join PARI’s webinar titled Towards coherent land policy-making in South Africa: Insights and Lessons on Wedensday, 16 September at 2pm.  Dr Gaynor...

39 children died at the hands of police or in custody between April 2012 and March 2018 By Daneel Knoetze 39 children died at the hands of police or in custody between April 2012 and March 2018. Almost none of these cases have resulted in convictions. Can IPID, the police watchdog, overcome years of cover-up and dysfunction? Few criminal cases against the...

Judges emphasise that procedural fairness must be upheld By Tania Broughton A magistrate ruled that a husband accused of abuse by his wife must leave the family home. The Western Cape High Court overturned the magistrate’s ruling. When evicting an alleged abuser in a case of domestic violence an informed assessment must be made and basic fairness applied, the judges ruled...

Despite the success of recent litigation to ensure the right to basic nutrition for learners around South Africa through the resumption of the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), serious obstacles remain to ensuring food security and combating hunger across the country. And while the NSNP case was a significant victory for the rights of learners to basic nutrition, child hunger...

Court rescinds sale of land, orders City of Cape Town and Western Cape government to create new housing policy  By James Stent Judges Patrick Gamble and Monde Samela have ruled in favour of housing activists in the landmark Tafelberg case. In a judgment over 200 pages long, Gamble and Samela set aside the sale of the site of the former Tafelberg Remedial...

 By Tania Broughton For years, law firm Sinama and Associates pursued a land claim with “no shred of evidence”, ending in a loss for the claimants A 14-year land claim legal battle has ended in a loss for the claimants and an extraordinary court order barring their lawyers from claiming any fees. The claim against 19 landowners in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, mainly dairy...

The South African Cities Network (SACN), the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) and the University of the Witwatersrand Law School are pleased to invite you to Joburg Urban Governance Dialogue AGENDA: Joburg Governance Dialogue Agenda INVITATION: Please find invitation attached. if you have not yet RSVP’d please click on the RSVP link below RSVP: Online -  click here

Sonke Gender Justice asks judges to declare part of Correctional Services Act unconstitutional By Zoë Postman On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court was asked to declare unconstitutional sections of the law which limit the independence of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) from the Department of Justice and Correctional Services (DCS) and hinder its role of oversight of the prisons. On 5 September...