Join us for the launch of the Centre for Constitutional Rights’ (CFCR) flagship publication, the Human Rights Report Card. The launch event is hosted in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS).

Speakers: 

• Mr Ghalib Galant – Deputy National Coordinator, Right 2 Know Campaign (R2K)
• Mr Jay Kruuse – Director, Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM)
• Ms Fiona van Kerwel – Project Manager, Words Open Worlds (WOW), University of Stellenbosch
  

On 15 February 2019, the window closed for written submissions on the Prevention and Combatting of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill (the Bill) to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services. The Bill – which proposes the statutory criminal offence of hate speech – is a much-improved version of its 2016 predecessor. However, the current offence of hate speech still poses a serious threat to the right to freedom of expression. 

In December 2018, the Equality Court handed down judgment in a matter concerning the allocation of police human resources across the Western Cape. The matter was brought in terms of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (Equality Act) by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), Equal Education (EE) and the Nyanga Community Policing Forum (Nyanga CPF). The applicants challenged the allocation of police human resources on the basis that the process discriminated unfairly against black and poor people. 

Section 195(1) of the Constitution stipulates clearly the guiding values and principles that public administration must adhere to. It emphasises the need for transparency in public administration, and providing the public with “timely, accessible and accurate information”. This section requires “good human resource management” and “career development practices” to effectively “maximise human potential”.  It also stipulates clearly that “employment and personnel management practices” in public administration must be based on “ability, objectivity, fairness and the need to redress the imbalances of the past to achieve broad representation”.  

These provisions are constitutional standards, which must be given effect to in national legislation and are a standard against which public administration must be measured. Section 195 of the Constitution is not a mere paper right – it carries weighty constitutional standards. 

Towards the end of 2018, the financially-troubled South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) was rocked by the resignation of four Board Members. This brought the number of vacant seats to eight, following four other resignations during the course of the year. The most recent resignations have rendered the Board inquorate and unable to take major decisions affecting the public broadcaster, as well as unable to hold the executive members of the Board and the Executive Committee accountable for their conduct. 

The resignations dealt a final blow to a significantly tumultuous year at the Broadcaster, which closed the year with advertisements for replacements to fill the eight vacancies. Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications has indicated that it will be returning to work early in 2019 to allow for the interviewing of candidates and the filling of the positions because until such time that the posts are filled, the SABC is operating without any visible leadership.

Since the publication of the 2018 matric results, a lot has been written about those performing outstandingly well in their final exams and the national pass rate of 78.2%. All this was done for good reason and we congratulate everybody on their personal success. At the same time, we must not forget those 400 000 young South Africans who enrolled in Grade 1 in 2007 but never ‘arrived’ at Matric 2018. Thus, it is worth looking at the Marathon of basic education, instead of the finishing sprint. 

Since June, the people of Emfuleni have had to live with raw sewage being emptied into the Vaal River. The contamination of the river threatens access to clean water for the three million people who depend directly on the Vaal River and the Vaal Dam for water. This by itself is shocking enough, however, the crisis has further consequences. The yards and streets of residents of Boipatong, Vereeniging, Sebokeng and Sharpevilleare flooded with sewage. For them, the crisis has even harsher effects, limiting the functionality of schools and causing severe health problems. An inspection by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in September found the situation to violate the constitutional rights to dignity, clean environment and social rights provided for in Section 27.

The Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR) recently made a written submission to the Department of Labour (the Department) on the Employment Equity Amendment Bill, 2018 (the Bill) read with the Draft Employment Equity Regulations, 2018 (draft EE regulations).

The Bill proposes various critical amendments to the Employment Equity Act of 1998 (the EE Act) relating to employment equity measures. Despite the Bill’s potential impact, these proposed amendments appear to have gone largely under the radar. 

A key proposed amendment is the establishment of sectoral numerical targets by the Minister of Labour. This is proposed to “ensure equitable representation of suitably qualified people from designated groups (black South Africans, women and persons with disabilities) at all occupational levels in the workforce”. The draft EE regulations provide criteria to be considered by the Minister when determining the numerical targets for such national economic sectors.

In an important judgment issued by the North Gauteng High Court today, the constitutional principle of accountability, as well as the protection of the Rule of Law, were reaffirmed. This judgment affirmed that valuable and scarce State resources should not be diverted on a grand scale to finance the defence of public officials charged with corruption.

The High Court held that the State is not liable to pay Mr Zuma’s personal legal costs in the criminal prosecutions against him. These relate to fraud, money laundering, corruption and racketeering. His personal legal costs are estimated to be over R16 million. The High Court also declared the Presidency and State Attorney’s decision to cover Mr Zuma’s legal costs – incurred in his personal capacity to defend these criminal prosecutions and litigation related thereto – to be invalid and set aside.