CAPE TOWN, 26 January 2010 – Today the SJC visited Makhaza Section in Khayelitsha to investigate claims that toilets had been built towards the end of last year without walls or roofs. The City government claim that this was done with the understanding that community members would build a suitable enclosure at a later date. All the residents we spoke to were not aware of this arrangement.

For months community members have been forced to either walk long distances to enclosed containerised toilets, or use these which provide no shelter or dignity. Both scenarios pose significant threats to residents' safety and security. One elderly woman we spoke to (pictured) had recently been stabbed walking to a far away containerised toilet.

Click here to view photos taken on today’s site visit.

CAPE TOWN – Widespread xenophobic attacks broke out in De Doorns - a small grape/wine farming town just beyond Worcester – over the weekend, and peaked early Tuesday morning.  Reports of displaced people ranged from 500 at the outset to 2800 at its peak. Police claim that over twenty people have since been arrested (the majority for assault and public violence, but four for looting), and that there has been no significant subsequent violence since Tuesday.   A SJC team visited the area yesterday to assess the extent of the displacement, and responses by local and provincial authorities. Below is a brief report of the situation as it stood late Thursday afternoon.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

CAPE TOWN – The Kennedy Road 13 returned to the Durban Magistrate's Court on Monday 26 October to hear the verdict on their application for bail. Once again the ANC mob had been bussed in and there was a further escalation of threats against us. New people were targeted and threatened with death. Even at the Durban Magistrate's Court, in full public view, we are not safe and our basic democratic rights to speak and associate freely are being denied.
The threats of death and harm from the mouths and at the hands of self-proclaimed ANC members and officials, which started at the Kennedy Road settlement, has followed us into the Court. The violence and intimidation, which started at Kennedy Road, is not over. It is far from over. It continues. Our movement is still under attack, and our members - in Kennedy Road, and now also in other settlements, continue to be scattered by threats of violence. Even as we declare to ourselves and the world that we will not be silenced by the ANC we continue to live in fear that free speech, free movement and free association could get us killed.

CAPE TOWN – The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) is strongly opposed to the premature release of fraud and corruption convict Schabir Shaik on what is alleged to be medical and humanitarian grounds. This classification of parole is only granted when a prisoner is thought to be in the final stage of a terminal illness, and will soon die. While we respect and encourage this right to parole in principle, neither the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), the Minister, nor the Shaik family or their representatives have provided independent medical opinion that he is in fact terminally ill, or the specific medical reasons for his release. This is a justifiable request as the circumstances of his incarceration, including the high profile nature of the case that focussed on the abuse of State power and the use of influential people to affect such abuse, have significant and unusual implications for the rule of law in South Africa.

Sonke Gender Justice Network Strongly Condemns Comments made by Julius Malema, ANC Youth League Leader

Cape Town/Johannesburg, 28 January 2009 ‒ The Sonke Gender Justice Network is deeply disturbed by the sexist comments made last week by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema and by the failure of the ANC to sanction him.

Last week, at a meeting with 150 Cape Peninsula University of Technology students on January 22, Malema suggested that the woman who accused ANC president Jacob Zuma of rape had a "nice time" with him and said, "when a woman didn't enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money."