Human rights

Egypt sentences senior official to12 years

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 15:27

31 January 2019

An Egyptian court has sentenced the deputy governor of the country's second-largest city to 12 years in prison on corruption charges.

The Cairo criminal court also sentenced Souad el-Kholy, deputy governor of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, to a one-year suspended sentence for bribery, profiteering and squandering public funds on Wednesday.

The court acquitted five local businessmen in the same case

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DRC seeks UN help against Rwanda rebels on border

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 15:12

31 January 2019

Democratic Republic of Congo's government has asked its UN peacekeeping mission for help against Rwandan rebels planning operations against Rwanda from inside Congolese territory, the UN said on Wednesday.

Leila Zerrougui, chief of the UN mission known as MONUSCO, said Kinshasa asked in a letter for peacekeepers to "thwart" FDLR Hutu rebels who were mustering in an eastern province near Rwanda's border.

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Zimbabwean lawyers march to demand a return to the rule of law

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 15:09

29 January 2019

Hundreds of lawyers dressed in their black gowns marched in Harare’s city centre to the Constitutional Court on Tuesday to call for the immediate restoration of the rule of law and order in Zimbabwe.

The march was organised by the Law Society of Zimbabwe, the largest body of legal practitioners across the country.

The march comes after the group said it had noted a worrying trend across the sections of the judiciary, where their clients were being denied bail and there was a surge in the fast-tracking of trials.

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Zimbabwe's public sector union backs down on strike

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 15:04

31 January 2019

Zimbabwe's umbrella public sector union has backed down from plans for a national strike, an official said on Thursday, citing the volatile situation in the country after violent protests this month were met by a security crackdown.

Wage negotiations between the government and the Apex Council, which represents 17 public sector unions, broke down on Wednesday. The unions then met to decide a date for a strike and announce it this week but the talks ended in disarray.

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Death toll at 52 after migrant boats sink off Djibouti

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 15:01

31 January 2019

The death toll from the sinking of two boats carrying migrants to Yemen from Djibouti rose to 52 on Thursday, the UN migration agency said, appealing to regional leaders to take action to stop such tragedies.

Rescuers working in Djibouti's northeastern Obock region continued to recover bodies on the Horn of Africa nation's coast following the capsizing of the two boats earlier this week.

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Comply with the NMW Act or be shamed

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 9:35

30 January 2019

Names of employers who fail to comply with the National Minimum Wage (NMW) Act will be published on the Department of Labour’s website.

“Shaming such employers will ensure they are recognized as people intent on defying the state. This will go on to ensure that they will not be able to do business with government,” the Department’s Chief for Statutory Services Fikiswa Mncanca said on Wednesday.

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Gloria Matsala walks 10 km to wait for work

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 8:33

31 January 2019

Gloria Matsala walks more than 10km each morning from her home in Benoni to the upmarket Brakpan suburb where she waits on the side of the road in the hope of being picked up for a day of domestic work.

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Human Rights Commission tackles Agrizzi over k-word rant

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 8:15

30 January 2019

The Human Rights Commission says it intends to initiate legal proceedings against Angelo Agrizzi in the Equality Court.

This follows his testimony at the state capture commission in which he admitted to using racial slurs. He also admitted to being a "racist". In the audio clip played at the inquiry, Agrizzi is heard using the k-word numerous times while laughing with those he was in conversation with.

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Hardcore prawn: How Bosasa made fishy money

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 8:07

31 January 2018

A prawn farm in Krugersdorp sounds unrealistically fanciful, but controversial state contractor Bosasa set one up in 2015 with the purpose of laundering fishy cash and avoiding the South African Revenue Service’s (Sars) tentacles.

Details of the farm were made known at the state capture commission on Wednesday when former Bosasa chief financial officer Andries van Tonder detailed how the company cooked its books to derail investigations by Sars and launder cash for bribe.

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Parliament to probe Clifton beach 'racism'

Thursday 31 January, 2019 - 8:00

31 January 2019

Parliament will hold an all-day inquiry into what transpired at Clifton Fourth Beach in Cape Town, where beachgoers were allegedly escorted off the beach by a private security company.

The incident was deemed racist by a number of organisations and compared to apartheid-era beach bans. In the wake of the incident, a number of protests took place, including the slaughtering of a sheep at the beach “to exorcise the demon of racism”.