On 31 July 2017, the columnist Mr Rams Mabote, wrote an article for News24 in which he shared his view on the future of young white Afrikaans boys attending an Afrikaans private school, Helpmekaar Kollege (Helpmekaar), after watching a rugby match between Helpmekaar and his son’s school. The heading of the article already sets the tone for the article, in which he announces “Helpmekaar not preparing learners for the real world”. He continues to state why he feels “sorry” for these young boys “who are cushioned in a cocoon of Afrikanerdom” and are ill-prepared for the realities of a mixed work environment. He avoids saying directly that the school is a racist school but without checking the facts he announces with “its race-exclusive make-up” it provides opportunities for prejudice. He attempts to provoke a response by stating “They speak the same language, they are all white and they almost look alike” (own emphasis). This article elicited a flood of responses from former students.

In July, the Constitutional Court (the Court) ruled on whether it is just and equitable to evict persons from private land in terms of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA), notwithstanding the absence of alternative accommodation. The Court found that private citizens have no obligation to relocate unlawful occupiers from their land as that responsibility lies with the government.

The applicants are former employees of a brick manufacturer located on a farm. They were permitted to live on the farm in units provided by the company for the duration of their employment. Upon the termination of said employment, they were given written eviction notices but they did not vacate the premises. Instead, they proceeded to occupy the units with their families for a further three years although they were now employed elsewhere.

As at 13 July 2017, 89 people have died, since 13 March 2014, in politically-motivated killings. No one so far, has been convicted of any of these killings. This has led to the appointment of the R15 million Moerane Commission of Inquiry into political killings in KwaZulu-Natal. Last week, the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality in the Eastern Cape’s Council Speaker, Thozama Njobe, was shot and killed after she reported that she had received threats to her life.  Outspoken African National Congress (ANC) Member of Parliament, Dr Makhosi Khoza, is currently in the news for publicising death threats to herself and her family over her political utterances.

The recently-ended governing party’s Policy Conference, meant to yield resolutions to determine guidelines to assist the new post-December party President establish the nation’s foreign policy, was revelatory. Not least because of the party’s silence on the damning allegations of state capture levelled at senior ranking party officials, or indeed that several key state organs appear to also have been politically compromised. Rather, the party’s stance on the International Criminal Court (ICC) threatens to isolate South Africa as a serious contender in the fight against impunity for gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity.

The International Relations discussion document of the governing party takes aim at the Rome Statute establishing the ICC on the basis that “It is regrettable that the power relations in the Rome Statute remained skewed in favour of the powerful western powers who were given untrammeled power through an unrepresentative structure like the UNSC.” The need for a reformed United Nations Security Council (UNSC), reflecting today’s geo-political realities, is a given. However, it is also true that outside of the ICC, there is no other permanent body to effectively address impunity for gross human rights violations.

The Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR) welcomes the decision of Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (the ICC) in which the ICC found that the Government of South Africa failed to comply with its obligations under the Rome Statute in failing to arrest and surrender to the ICC, President Al-Bashir.

The decision stems from South Africa’s failure to arrest President Al-Bashir during his official visit to South Africa to take part in African Union deliberations in 2015.