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Country Guide South Africa
Human Rights and Business Country Guide South Africa March 2015 Table of Contents How to Use this Guide .................................................................................. 3 Background & Context ................................................................................. 7 Rights Holders at Risk ........................................................................... 15 Rights Holders at Risk in the Workplace ..................................................... 15 Rights Holders at Risk in the Community ................................................... 25 Labour Standards ................................................................................. 35 Child Labour ............................................................................................... 35 Forced Labour ............................................................................................ 39 Occupational Health & Safety .................................................................... 42 Trade Unions .............................................................................................. 49 Working Conditions .................................................................................... 56 Community Impacts ............................................................................. 64 Environment ............................................................................................... 64 Land & Property ......................................................................................... 72 Revenue Transparency -
South Africa | Freedom House Page 1 of 8
South Africa | Freedom House Page 1 of 8 South Africa freedomhouse.org In May 2014, South Africa held national elections that were considered free and fair by domestic and international observers. However, there were growing concerns about a decline in prosecutorial independence, labor unrest, and political pressure on an otherwise robust media landscape. South Africa continued to be marked by high-profile corruption scandals, particularly surrounding allegations that had surfaced in 2013 that President Jacob Zuma had personally benefitted from state-funded renovations to his private homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) won in the 2014 elections with a slightly smaller vote share than in 2009. The newly formed Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a populist splinter from the ANC Youth League, emerged as the third-largest party. The subsequent session of the National Assembly was more adversarial than previous iterations, including at least two instances when ANC leaders halted proceedings following EFF-led disruptions. Beginning in January, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) led a five-month strike in the platinum sector, South Africa’s longest and most costly strike. The strike saw some violence and destruction of property, though less than AMCU strikes in 2012 and 2013. The year also saw continued infighting between rival trade unions. The labor unrest exacerbated the flagging of the nation’s economy and the high unemployment rate, which stood at approximately 25 percent nationally and around 36 percent for youth. Political Rights and Civil Liberties: Political Rights: 33 / 40 [Key] A. Electoral Process: 12 / 12 Elections for the 400-seat National Assembly (NA), the lower house of the bicameral Parliament, are determined by party-list proportional representation. -
Armed Response: an Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid
Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy Volume 1 Issue 1 Study Space IX Cape Town, South Africa Article 12 2017 Armed Response: An Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid Leila Lawlor Georgia State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/jculp Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Environmental Law Commons, Land Use Law Commons, and the Urban Studies Commons Recommended Citation Lawlor, Leila (2017) "Armed Response: An Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid," Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1 , Article 12. Available at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/jculp/vol1/iss1/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Reading Room. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy by an authorized editor of Reading Room. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Lawlor: Armed Response ARMED RESPONSE: AN UNFORTUNATE LEGACY OF APARTHEID Leila Lawlor1 ABSTRACT After apartheid was repealed in South Africa, the country’s system of forced segregation officially ended. Vestiges of racial discrimination remain, however, including spatial segregation in housing, income inequality, and huge disparities in the government’s provisioning of basic services. The poorest of South Africa’s citizens live in peripheral communities, far from city centers and employment hubs. The poorest communities often lack safe streets and safe toilets. Whereas wealthier South Africans are able to pay private policing companies to provide armed security, those in the poorest of communities must live with regular fear of violent crime. The problem is compounded by a flawed method of allocating police resources, which has resulted in unequal distribution of government-provided security. -
Armed Response: an Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid
Georgia State University College of Law Reading Room Faculty Publications By Year Faculty Publications 2017 Armed Response: An Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid Leila Lawlor Follow this and additional works at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/faculty_pub Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, and the Property Law and Real Estate Commons Lawlor: Armed Response ARMED RESPONSE: AN UNFORTUNATE LEGACY OF APARTHEID Leila Lawlor1 ABSTRACT After apartheid was repealed in South Africa, the country’s system of forced segregation officially ended. Vestiges of racial discrimination remain, however, including spatial segregation in housing, income inequality, and huge disparities in the government’s provisioning of basic services. The poorest of South Africa’s citizens live in peripheral communities, far from city centers and employment hubs. The poorest communities often lack safe streets and safe toilets. Whereas wealthier South Africans are able to pay private policing companies to provide armed security, those in the poorest of communities must live with regular fear of violent crime. The problem is compounded by a flawed method of allocating police resources, which has resulted in unequal distribution of government-provided security. The situation is now dismal for many township residents, but hope has emerged through the efforts of concerned activists, clever urban designers, and many of the residents themselves. With focus on safety, land justice, and education, -
(And Democracy) in South Africa
Twenty years of punishment (and democracy) in South Africa The pitfalls of governing crime through the community Gail Super* [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sacq.v48i1.1 This article examines how the ideology of ‘community’ is deployed to govern crime in South Africa, both by marginalised black communities and by the government. Although the turn to ‘community’ started under the National Party government in the late 1970s, there is no doubt that as a site, technology, discourse, ideology and form of governance, ‘community’ has become entrenched in the post-1994 era. Utilising empirical data drawn from ethnographic research on vigilantism in Khayelitsha, as well as archival materials in respect of ANC policies and practices before it became the governing party, I argue that rallying ‘communities’ around crime combatting has the potential to unleash violent technologies in the quest for ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’. When community members unite against an outsider they are bonded for an intense moment in a way that masks the very real problems that tear the community apart. Because violent punishment is one of the consequences of the state’s turn towards democratic localism, we should question the way in which the ‘community’ is deployed as a tool of crime prevention, and subject it to rigorous scrutiny. With the advent of formal democracy in South in 2004, South Africa has the highest incarceration Africa in April 1994 one might have been justified rate in Africa and one of the highest in the world.2 In in expecting that the criminal justice system would 2013, the number of people serving life imprisonment become less punitive and that this would entail stood at 11 000, as opposed to 400 in 1994.3 less reliance on imprisonment as a punishment Democratisation has thus brought with it a dramatic par excellence.1 However, although the numbers in increase in long-term prison sentences, ranging custody have been reduced since an all-time high from seven years to life. -
Citizen's Co-Production of Public Safety As a Symptom of State Failure: the Case of South African Vigilantism
Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy Volume 1 Issue 1 Study Space IX Cape Town, South Africa Article 11 2017 Citizen's Co-Production of Public Safety as a Symptom of State Failure: The Case of South African Vigilantism Dawid Szescilo University of Warsaw, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/jculp Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Environmental Law Commons, Land Use Law Commons, and the Urban Studies Commons Recommended Citation Szescilo, Dawid (2017) "Citizen's Co-Production of Public Safety as a Symptom of State Failure: The Case of South African Vigilantism," Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1 , Article 11. Available at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/jculp/vol1/iss1/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Reading Room. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy by an authorized editor of Reading Room. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Szescilo: Citizen's Co-Production of Public Safety CITIZEN’S CO-PRODUCTION OF PUBLIC SAFETY AS A SYMPTOM OF STATE FAILURE: THE CASE OF SOUTH AFRICAN VIGILANTISM Dawid Sześciło1 ABSTRACT The growing interest in co-production of public services reflects the need to liberate from the dichotomy between state and market provision. Whereas the concept of co-production is not new, it gained broader recognition among public administration scholars in recent years. What is characteristic for the academic discourse on this idea, is a strong focus on the benefits of co- production such as effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness and quality of public services. -
Twenty Years of Punishment (And Democracy) in South Africa
Twenty years of punishment (and democracy) in South Africa The pitfalls of governing crime through the community Gail Super* [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sacq.v48i1.1 This article examines how the ideology of ‘community’ is deployed to govern crime in South Africa, both by marginalised black communities and by the government. Although the turn to ‘community’ started under the National Party government in the late 1970s, there is no doubt that as a site, technology, discourse, ideology and form of governance, ‘community’ has become entrenched in the post-1994 era. Utilising empirical data drawn from ethnographic research on vigilantism in Khayelitsha, as well as archival materials in respect of ANC policies and practices before it became the governing party, I argue that rallying ‘communities’ around crime combatting has the potential to unleash violent technologies in the quest for ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’. When community members unite against an outsider they are bonded for an intense moment in a way that masks the very real problems that tear the community apart. Because violent punishment is one of the consequences of the state’s turn towards democratic localism, we should question the way in which the ‘community’ is deployed as a tool of crime prevention, and subject it to rigorous scrutiny. With the advent of formal democracy in South in 2004, South Africa has the highest incarceration Africa in April 1994 one might have been justified rate in Africa and one of the highest in the world.2 In in expecting that the criminal justice system would 2013, the number of people serving life imprisonment become less punitive and that this would entail stood at 11 000, as opposed to 400 in 1994.3 less reliance on imprisonment as a punishment Democratisation has thus brought with it a dramatic par excellence.1 However, although the numbers in increase in long-term prison sentences, ranging custody have been reduced since an all-time high from seven years to life. -
Developing a New Policing Reform Agenda
APCOF Policy Paper 15 Februay 2017 Substantive areas of police reform: Developing a new policing reform agenda Melanie Lue Dugmore Introduction Against a framework for democratic policing, this paper provides the reader with an accessible overview of the extensive policing reform agenda in South Africa over the democratic period. Mindful of the still-pending review of the South African Police Act, it provides a summary of some of the key issues that should be considered. The paper addresses substantive reform in the following thematic areas: • The protection of human rights and demilitarisation, with particular emphasis on public order policing; • Independence and operational autonomy of policing institutions and oversight bodies; and • Police responsiveness, efficiency and professionalism. This forms the basis for revisiting outstanding police reform imperatives that should be addressed in an agenda for change. The recommendations proposed in this paper are not new. They have been consistently addressed by judicial commissions of inquiry, task teams, parliament, the Ministry of Police and by the police themselves. Given the vast range of reform initiatives, including those pertinent to areas such as systems and logistics management, democratic policing principles were used as a lens to focus the study on those areas of reforms relevant to the interaction between police and civilians. David Bayley identifies two essential features of policing in a democracy: responsiveness and accountability.1 A democratic police service ‘responds to -
Report on a Dialogue on Human Rights and Policing May 2018
REPORT ON A DIALOGUE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLICING 2–3 May 2018 Johannesburg, South Africa Hosted by African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum In partnership with the South African Human Rights Commission REPORT ON A DIALOGUE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLICING 2–3 May 2018 Johannesburg, South Africa Hosted by African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum In partnership with the South African Human Rights Commission Building 2B, Suite 16 Waverley Business Park Wyecroft Road Mowbray 7925 South Africa Tel: +27 21 447 2415 Fax: +27 21 447 1691 Email: [email protected] Web: www.apcof.org.za Copyright © African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum, 2018 Designed, typeset and proofread by COMPRESS.dsl www.compressdsl.com Contents Acronyms and abbreviations iv 1 Background 1 2 Policing and the safeguarding of human rights 2 Discussion points 3 3 Decriminalisation of petty crime and the governance of poverty 4 Discussion points 6 4 Safety and development in informal neighbourhoods 7 Discussion points 8 5 Police oversight within a human rights framework 10 Discussion points 13 6 Closing 14 7 Afterword 15 Endnotes 16 Participants 17 Acronyms and abbreviations ACHPR African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights / African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights APCOF African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum CJS Criminal justice system CoGTA Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs CPA Criminal Procedure Act CPF Community policing forum CSC Community service centre CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research CSO Civil society organisation -
Awards National
SPECIAL EDITION | FREE POLICE YOUR OFFICIAL FREE SAPS MAGAZINE NATIONAL ExcellenceAWARDS 2019 CELEBRATING SAPS BRIGHTEST STARS ON A JOURNEY TO A SAFER SOUTH AFRICA #Selfless&PatrioticService CONTENTS 01 POLICE The POLICE magazine is published by the Publications and Broadcast Section of Corporate Communication. 01 National Excellence Awards 2018 HEAD: NATIONAL CORPORATE COMMUNICATION Messages of support Maj Gen SA de Beer SUB-SECTION HEAD: INTERNAL PUBLICATIONS Col Linda van den Berg 04 National Excellence Awards 2018 012 393 7075 SUBEDITING Lt Col Erica Holtzhausen 27 National Police Day 2018 012 393 7106 Lt Col Fundiswa Maphanga-Nkosi Excellence 012 393 7104 AWARDS JOURNALISTS: 30 Kamhlushwa Police Station Opening Lt Col Erica Holtzhausen 012 393 7104 Capt Keitumetse Mmushi 012 393 7138 31 Communities essential to policing Capt Vincent Mukhathi 012 393 7088 Capt Kgabo Mashamaite 2019 32 R2 million raised for SAPS Education Trust 012 393 7151 WO Percy Sepaela 012 393 7108 33 SAPS gives orphaned teens new home LayOUT WO Henk Venter COVER WO Henk venter PHOTOGRAPHERS: WO Theo van Wyk EDITORIAL 012 393 7103 WO Anne Magakoe Messages January is an exciting educational needs up to tertiary level, is one 012 393 7290 time for us in the South such example. WO Ndanduleni Nyambeni 012 393 7279 African Police Service LanguagE EDITING BY: (SAPS), when we usually Another community-building initiative was Lt Col Ilze-Mari Visagie Capt Maurene Claasens acknowledge our unsung the National Commissioner’s Golf Challenge OVERVIEW BY THE DIVISIONAL COMMISSIONER -
Marikana and the Doctrine of Maximum Force
MARIKANA AND THE DOCTRINE OF MAXIMUM FORCE 1 MARIKANA AND THE DOCTRINE OF MAXIMUM FORCE Marikana and the Doctrine of Maximum Force By David Bruce LONDON — Nearly a quarter of a century after 96 Liverpool soccer fans were crushed to death in one of the worst stadium disasters in history, Prime Minister David Cameron formally apologized on Wednesday to the victims’ families, saying their “appalling deaths” were compounded by an attempt by the police, investigators and the news media to depict the victims as hooligans and to blame them for the disaster. Before a hushed House of Commons, Mr. Cameron said the families had suffered “a double injustice” in the failures of the police, fire officials and other authorities to anticipate the disaster or to contain its scale once it occurred, and in the efforts that followed to cover up police failings by altering witness statements, and to pin responsibility on the victims for their own deaths. -- New York Times, September 13, 2012 2 MARIKANA AND THE DOCTRINE OF MAXIMUM FORCE David Bruce David Bruce has been researching and writing about policing, violence and the criminal justice system since 1996, and is regarded as the country's leading experts on issues relating to police use of force. He has worked for a variety of think-tanks and NGOs, including the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, the Institute for Security Studies, and Corruption Watch. 3 MARIKANA AND THE DOCTRINE OF MAXIMUM FORCE Published in South Africa in 2012 by PARKTOWN PUBLISHERS (Pty) Ltd Trading as MAMPOER SHORTS Harrow Court 1, Isle of Houghton, Boundary Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2011/107084/07 Copyright © Parktown Publishers, South Africa, 2012 DB_Marikana20121018 Website: www.mampoer.co.za Email: [email protected] MampoerShorts promotes South Africa’s top writers. -
Policing Needs and Priorities Report 2019
POLICING NEEDS AND PRIORITIES 2019 Secretariat for Safety and Security Policing Needs and Priorities 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF ACRONYMS___________________________________________________________________________ 4 FOREWORD BY THE WESTERN CAPE MINISTER OF COMMUNITY SAFETY _________________________ 6 1. INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________________________8 1.1. Mandate and programmes of the Department of Community Safety 9 1.2. Public consultations to determine the PNPs 11 2. PROFESSIONAL POLICING IN THE WESTERN CAPE _____________________________ 13 2.1. Measuring professional policing 14 2.2. Evidence-based professional policing 16 3. CRIME, HARM AND SAFETY IN THE WESTERN CAPE ___________________________ 17 3.1. Priority crime 18 3.2. Reducing violence by reducing murder 22 3.2.1. Murder: contributing factors 24 3.2.2. Murder: day, time and tool 25 3.3. Attempted murder 25 3.4. Gang-related murder and attempted murder 26 3.5. Robbery 28 4. RESPONDING TO PRIORITY CRIME IN THE WESTERN CAPE _________________ 32 4.1. Policing informal areas (and where crime occurs) 32 4.1.1. Where crime occurs 33 4.1.2. Sector policing and the focused policing of informal neighbourhoods 34 4.2. Gender-based and domestic violence 36 4.2.1. DVA station audits 40 4.3. Violence, alcohol and the Alcohol Harms Reduction Game Changer 45 4.3.1. AHR developments during 2016/2017 47 4.3.2. Reported crime and PNP feedback in AHR pilot areas 48 4.4. Gang-related crime and the provincial response to the National Anti-Gangsterism Strategy 52 Western Cape Government | Community Safety 1 Policing Needs and Priorities 2019 5. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS OF THE POLICING NEEDS AND PRIORITIES PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS, 2017/2018 ________________________ 57 5.1.