SJC Member Stabbed & Robbed In Effort To Relieve Himself

Khayelitsha, Press releases, Safety and Justice Campaign

An SJC member and Khayelitsha resident was stabbed in the face on Saturday whilst trying to relieve himself in a clearing alongside the N2 highway.

Makhosandile “Scarre” Qezo, who lives in RR section – an informal settlement in Khayelitsha in which there are approximately 3000 households and only 240 toilets – had walked across Lansdowne Road and was relieving himself behind a bush in the clearing alongside the N2 when two men attacked him.

City Official Joins SJC For Inspection of RR Section

Khayelitsha, Press releases, Safety and Justice Campaign

On 8 April 2010 SJC members accompanied Laurence Grootboom – Functional Operations Manager for the City’s Water and Sanitation Department – on a visit to an area of RR section long afflicted by an overflowing sewerage line. This followed numerous efforts by the SJC over the preceding six weeks to have the problem rectified, and a meeting a week earlier with the Mayor of Cape Town and other City officials in which it was raised.

SJC Responds to City’s Condemnation of “Toilet Queue”

City, Press releases, Safety and Justice Campaign

Cape Town, 23 March 2010 – On Saturday 20 March, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) organised a queue of approximately 600 people outside a public toilet on the Sea Point Promenade as part of The World Toilet Queue – an international demonstration scheduled to coincide with World Water Day – to highlight the plight of the 2.5 billion people worldwide who do not have access to basic sanitation. It was also arranged to draw attention to the lack of basic sanitation services in the City of Cape Town and highlight how this affects residents’ health and safety, as well as the disproportionate investment in formal as opposed to informal settlements. It was further designed to coincide with the Human Rights Day weekend, to illustrate how numerous rights, particularly those of dignity and security, are still deprived to hundreds of thousands of Capetonians, and indeed millions more across the country.

Xenophobic Violence in De Doorns

Press releases

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.

Still No Bail for the Kennedy Road 13 as the Attack on our Movement Continues

Press releases, Safety and Justice Campaign, University of Cape Town

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.

SJC Condemns Central Arms Deal Corruption Broker Schabir Shaik’s Early Release on Parole

Press releases, Safety and Justice Campaign

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.

We endorse in Sonke press statement in response to statements by ANCYL leader Julius Malema

Press releases

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