Safety & Security
Safety and Security is the latest and largest campaign of the SJC. We believe that Safety and Security for All is one of the most important issues for South Africa. And to build a safer South Africa we need to know what makes us unsafe. Policing and correctional services is one tool and we agree that this tool must be used and that it must be firm. But we also argue that the root of an unsafe South Africa is not only lack of these features, lack of policing and correctional service. There is also a need to examine why criminals commit crimes. Why does a man steal, rape and murder? Our Safety and Security Campaign directs questions towards school and after school-care, alcohol and drugs, housing and service delivery, traffic accidents and dark streets. We firmly believe that unless service delivery is being bettered for the poor, South Africa can not become a safer place.
Education is provided through the Annual Irene Grootboom Community Lecture Series where politicians and academics gather together with civil society and gives us a chance to have an open debate and dialogue with our leaders, intellectuals and comrades. The lectures started in spring 2008 and have been a successful event in bringing people together. Following the lectures we are conducting workshops and door to door education in our branches in Khayelitsha and Kraaifontein.
The Khayelitsha District was recently the host of the Second Annual Irene Grootboom Community Lecture Series 2009, with public lectures on the subject of Safety and security for All. The Lectures ran for seven weeks and covered the topics of Safety and Inequality, Crime Prevention Strategies, Housing, Transport and roads Safety, Fire and Emergency Services and Water, Sanitation and Sewerage. Speakers were invited from government, academic institutions and civil society. Each lecture draw an audience of about 200 people and created a fruitful discussion on the topic of the day. The lectures are a part of the safety and security campaign as well as a basis for education and discussion in Khayelitsha branches.
Makhaza toilets
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.
Still No Bail for the Kennedy Road 13 as the Attack on our Movement Continues
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.
SJC Condemns Central Arms Deal Corruption Broker Schabir Shaik's Early Release on Parole
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.
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