activism

Scores of independent Zimbabwean civic, pro-democracy and rights groups say they will boycott monitoring of voting in a referendum on a new constitution unless the state election commission withdraws bans on activists that affect several key local organisations.
 
The commission has so far refused to accredit as poll monitors members of the Zimbabwe Association of Human Rights and says groups under police investigation will also be barred access to the 16 March 2013 polling.
 

Activist Mamphela Ramphele has officially launched a new political party platform at a news conference in Johannesburg, promising to ‘build the country of our dreams’.

Ramphele says the new party will be called, Agang, which is Sesotho for ‘build’, and will ‘declare war on corruption’.

The new party, which already has a website and twitter handle, and will contest the 2014 national elections since “... dream has faded for many living in poverty and destitution.”

Child rights advocates have welcomed a ruling overturning parts of the Sexual Offences Act, which they say is out of step with reality.

On 15 January 2013, Judge Pierre Rabie found that sections of the Sexual Offences Act, which made consensual sex between teenagers a crime, are unconstitutional.

The laws, which were widely panned by child rights activists since they were first mooted, even made it illegal for teenagers to engage in kissing and cuddling if there is more than a two-year age gap between them.

Activist Zachie Achmat says he will surrender his African National Congress (ANC) membership if President Jacob Zuma is given a second term as leader of the ANC in Mangaung.

Achmat, founder of the Treatment Action Campaign and currently also a champion for farmworkers' rights, says Zuma is robbing the country blind, adding that the ANC needs a leader with integrity, someone above reproach, who does not hesitate to take action against corruption.

Anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele has slammed the African National Congress (ANC) for its backing of the Traditional Courts Bill, sky-high unemployment and the appalling standard of education.
 
Ramphele was speaking at the University of Cape Town's School of Business on the ‘Marikana Fallout’ and on a wide range of issues, including the mining and grape-farm strikes in Western Cape, and the role of labour unions.
 

Amnesty International is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of three workers of the Zimbabwean NGO, Counselling Services Unit, who spent more than 48 hours in police custody without charge and without being brought before a court.

The organisation’s Southern Africa director, Noel Kututwa, who describes their arrest as illegal, regards the three men as ‘prisoners of conscience’, arrested solely for their legitimate work providing counselling services to victims of torture and organised violence.