Press Statement for Immediate Release In February 2010 a young girl living in Khayelitsha told her friend that she had been raped by her dance teacher. Her friend retold the story to a teacher who in turn reported the matter to the police. Police soon arrested Mlulami Gagu, at the time a traditional dance teacher…
Cape Town, in bidding for World Design Capital 2014, committed itself to transforming lives by design – rebuilding community cohesion; reconnecting communities through infrastructural enhancement; and repositioning the city for the knowledge economy. A grand vision, no doubt, but how do we get designers and communities talking the same language and collectively solving pressing social problems to get us there?
This letter from some SJC branch leaders was hand delivered to the Office of Premier Helen Zille on 14 June 2012, and printed in the Cape Times on 15 June 2012.
Who is Richard Mdluli? A fact sheet about the Suspended Head of SAPS Crime Intelligence.
Corruption Watch (CW) and the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) welcomed Judge Makgoba’s granting of the urgent relief sought by Freedom Under Law (FUL) in the first part of its application to the North Gauteng High Court. The second part of the application will be heard separately on a date provided by the Judge President and will deal with, amongst other issues, the reasons why disciplinary proceedings were withdrawn and why Lt. General Mdluli was reinstated as Head of Crime Intelligence.
Corruption Watch (CW) and the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) have filed a joint application for leave to intervene as co-applicants in Part B of the matter of Freedom Under Law v National Director of Public Proseuctions, case No. 26912/2012 brought in the North Gauteng High Court. In addition to the grounds of challenge raised in the principal application, the application brought by the SJC an CW asks the court to review and set aside decisions of the NPA to halt the prosecution of Lt. General Mdluli for his alleged involvement in murder and corruption.
On the 22 May 2012 a small group of people – some victims, some volunteers – who helped during the xenophobic crisis of 2008 gathered at the Slave Tree in Spin Street, in memory of those killed and injured four years earlier. The understated and moving event was organised by People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) and attended by a group of about 50 refugees and other civil society groups who were involved, and have remained involved, with the plight of refugees in Cape Town including the Agency for Refugee Education, Skills Training and Advocacy (ARESTA), Scalabrini, and the Social Justice Coalition (SJC).
Today, approximately 200 Social Justice Coalition (SJC) members will gather outside the Cape Town Civic Centre – joined by Mayor Patricia de Lille, ward councilors, and partners – to mark the City’s announcement (see here) of a new service for informal settlements which could drastically improve the quality of sanitation services.
The inaugural caucus meeting was held on 5 May 2012 in Khayelitsha. 70 individuals, representing community-based organisations, academic institutions and business, attended the meeting. The meeting facilitated engagements and productive critical debate between communities, architects, designers, artists, engineers, activists and business.
Cape Town is a city that remains deeply scarred by centuries of division by design. During Apartheid, hundreds of thousands of black and coloured citizens were forced out to the City’s periphery into makeshift and underserviced settlements on hostile land. Today almost a million people – roughly a third of the City’s households – reside in informal or inadequate housing[1], cut off from the “city centre” and facing massive service delivery backlogs.