Failure by local government to provide basic services has led to protests around South Africa. Now, some residents are resorting to self-help.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
South Africa needs a way to incorporate active citizens within the prevailing constitutional and legal structures, so as to strengthen all levels of government.
Failures by municipalities to do their work are forcing many residents to take matters into their own hands.
EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma
The Constitutional Court judgment is a huge victory, not only for journalists and lawyers who stand to benefit directly and immediately, but for broader society.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, chair of the state capture commission.
EFE-EPA?Gulshan Khan/AFP/ Getty Images
For every office holder who may lose a seat because they are prosecuted, another job opens up.
Young Sandi Sile on an abandoned structure in Makhanda, South Africa, in 2013. Questions remain about how the new law will treat abandoned land.
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The proposed new law has a long history. The country has been trying for almost 12 years now to come up with expropriation legislation that is in line with the constitution.
Thuli Madonsela, professor of law and former Public Protector of South Africa.
EFE-EPA
Clashes between mining companies and communities are often about the age-old question of whether mining, with its adverse impacts, can benefit the many or only a selected few.
The country’s Constitution, as well as several court rulings, offer clear guidelines for how children’s best interests should be managed and prioritised.
Human rights lawyer and anti-apartheid activist George Bizos at Freedom Park, Pretoria, in 2013.
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His appearance on behalf of the families of mine workers shot by the police at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry was just one of his efforts to seek justice for the poor and marginalised.
The best interests of the child require detention to be used as a last resort.
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To afford sufficient protection to marginalised people in society - such as women in minority religious communities - the state must recognise and regulate religious marriages in a nuanced way.
The court says people need to be able to trust the government to abide by the rule of law, make rational regulations, and not intrude on the rights of those subject to the law.