New Service Could Improve Sanitation Conditions For More Than 350 000 People Living in Cape Town’s Informal Settlements The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) has made a formal submission to the City of Cape Town which outlines the need for a new service to maintain more than 13 700 permanent flush toilets in the City’s informal…
On 28 November 2011 the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) and partner organisations submitted a formal complaint to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, calling for a Commission of Inquiry with powers to investigate failures of the Khayelitsha police and criminal justice system. More information on the complaint can be found here. Two articles from today’s Cape…
This article by SJC Coordinator Gavin Silber appeared in the Mail & Guardian 0n 23 March 2012. The South African Human Rights Commission has declared March Human Rights month – with a particular focus on access to water and sanitation. The SJC has been participating in the HRC’s national Sanitation Hearings, aimed at highlighting…
Social Justice Coalition (SJC) members joined the Congress of South African Trade Union’s (COSATU) protest in the Cape Town city centre today. The protest – attended by various union movements and civil society organisations – called on government to address a number of issues facing poor and working class people in South Africa. These…
On Saturday 25 February a group of 16 students from the University of Cape Town’s Students for Law and Social Justice (SLSJ) came to Khayelitsha to offer free legal advice to residents of RR Section. Facilitated by the SJC, a number of people came to seek advice – ranging from issues such as police brutality…
Cape Town has been awarded the right to host the World Design Capital 2014 (WDC2014) against stiff competition from cities across the planet, in large part because of the Cape Town Partnership’s bold and candid bid. The bid promised to use the year-long event to “deal with the vast imbalances that exist in our society”,…
The statement issued by Cabinet on 24 November 2011 setting out its views on the transformation of the judiciary correctly identifies three fundamental areas that require public deliberation and action. The areas of public interest identified are access to justice for the majority of people, continued transformation of the judiciary and “the regular monitoring of the…
The Social Justice Coalition (SJC),Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Free Gender, Equal Education (EE), Triangle Project and Ndifuna Ukwazi submitted a formal legal complaint demanding a Commission of Inquiry into the Khayelitsha criminal justice system. The complaint against SAPS, the Metro Police and their interface with the prosecuting authority and judiciary was prepared by the organisations…
A joint statement by the Treatment Action Campaign, , Equal Education, Social Justice Coalition, SECTION27 and Ndifuna Ukwazi Join the Right2Know Protests this Week! We are civil society organisations who support the Right2Know campaign. For the past year our members have spoken out against the Protection of State Information Bill (Secrecy Bill) and protested against…
This article by Zackie Achmat and Fritz Jooste appeared in the Cape Times on 1 November 2011 The lived experience of people in informal settlements is a dehumanising defiance of the constitutional and moral obligations that require the state to treat every person as having equal dignity and rights. Uncollected rubbish, floating faeces and the…