Isabel Venter
In July last year, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu announced that the department planned to allocate R600 million towards rental relief to tenants of affordable housing.
No details of the relief scheme have been shared.
Social movements and civil society organisations said in a joint statement that the consequences of the department’s failure to honour its promises to provide rent relief stands to be even more dire.
Social movements and civil society organisations have started a petition, calling on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to allocate and release funds intended for the Rent Relief Scheme.
DAâs call to end lockdown over eviction rule is reckless and racist, says EFF
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Cape Town - The DA has been criticised for their ârecklessâ and âirresponsibleâ call for the lifting of level 1 lockdown, with the EFF saying it was racist, anti-poor and in the interest of the white minority.
Spokesperson for the DA on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Cilliers Brink on Tuesday said the party was calling for regulations to be lifted, saying it âmade it close to impossible for property owners to obtain eviction ordersâ.
âWhile restrictions on the movement of people have long ago been lifted, the corresponding rights of property owners have not been restored. To protect their land and buildings against illegal occupation property owners have to overcome extraordinary legal hurdles, creating an open season for land grabs,â he said.
Since it was published, the 2021 Budget has been called out as unconstitutional and austere from many corners. More than 200 social movements, civil society organisations, trade unions and individuals, in an open letter to members of Parliament, have endorsed a call for MPs to reject the Budget and send it back to the drawing board. The current Budget will cut public spending by R265-billion over the next three years in areas which directly affect human rights.
The signatories of the open letter represent 1.5 million people, according to Section27, one of the signatories.
The letter urges the members of Parliament to use their constitutional powers to send the Budget back to the executive. They should demand that it protects human rights and finds an alternative way of managing public debt, the letter states.
Protesters were turned back from Parliament’s gate and made to protest at least 800m away before Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s Budget speech on Wednesday. Among the groups of demonstrators was Equal Education, which called for a reversal of budget cuts to the basic education department.
An immediate, transparent, and fully comprehensive vaccine plan, accompanied by a documents drive is urgently required, write the authors. (Michael Ciaglo, Getty Images via AFP)
Global South Against Xenophobia (GSAX) of the COVID-19 People’s Coalition, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the
South African Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN) have written an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa asking that government reveal its vaccine rollout strategy.
Global South Against Xenophobia (GSAX) of the COVID-19 People’s Coalition,
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the South African Human Rights Defenders
Network (SAHRDN) call on government to transparently reveal its vaccine