Category Archives: Right2Know

Whose freedom? South Africa’s press, middle-class bias and the threat of control

Whose freedom? South Africa’s press, middle-class bias and the threat of
control

Steven Friedman

Threats to the autonomy of South Africa’s press have prompted protest – understandably so. But, while media control or censorship are inimical to the free flow of information, which is essential to democracy, the mainstream press’s response to real and perceived threats has done more to reveal the depth of its middle-class bias than to rally citizens behind the defence of freedom. The article seeks to demonstrate that the mainstream media’s understanding of freedom is restricted to the liberties of the suburban middle classes. It supports this argument by analysing both the journalistic preoccupations it seeks to defend and the phrasing of its attempts to oppose state control. And it argues that the framing of press freedom as a purely middle-class concern will make it increasingly unlikely that free expression can be effectively defended.

Click here to download this article in pdf.

Eyewitness News: ‘Info bill a threat to the constitution’

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http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/Story.aspx?Id=76999

‘Info bill a threat to the constitution’

Karabo Tjale

The Right2Know Campaign on Saturday said it would continue to lobby for the complete scrapping of the Protection of Information Bill.

Hundreds of people marched from Botha Park to the Durban City Hall, where they handed over a memorandum to the Ethekwini Municipality.

Right2Know’s China Ngubane said the bill remained a threat to the constitution.

“It will hide all the corruption that is going to happen in government. South African democracy is a hard fought and won democracy and it should prevail,” he said.

The march was in solidarity with the Abahlali Basemjondolo Movement.

The movement called for the resignation of the housing and infrastructure chair Nigel Gumede.

They accused Gumede of failing to meet the needs of the poor in the city.

Abahlali Basemjondolo’s Bandile Mdlalose said, “We don’t want things to be hidden from us. We also demand electricity, water and sanitation. We want Nigel Gumede to go so that we can have access to housing.”

(Edited by Lindiwe Mlandu)

March to Demand the Resignation of Nigel Gumede

Memorandum from Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement South Africa

DATE: 5 November 2011
RE: Call for the immediate removal of Nigel Gumede as Chairperson of the Housing Portfolio Committee and Infrastructure for eThekwini Municipality

March to Demand the Resignation of Nigel Gumede & the Right to Know – 5 November 2011

Today, Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) is marching to urgently call for the immediate removal of Nigel Gumede as Chairperson of the Housing Portfolio Committee and Infrastructure for the eThekwini Municipality.

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Show us the audit on our houses, Minister Sexwale!

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Show us the audit on our houses, Minister Sexwale!

R2K and AEC Western Cape Statement

The residents of Newfields Village are still waiting for Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale to respond to their demand for access to an audit of the low-cost housing provided by the controversial Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC).

The Auditor-General conducted a preliminary investigation of houses provided by the CTCHC in November 2010, following years of residents’ complaints of the shoddy quality of houses and mismanagement of funds.

On 24 May 2011, residents of Newfields Village approached the National Department of Human Settlements to make a formal demand for access to the audit in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). When the Minister failed to respond within the 30-day period stipulated in the Act, our attorney submitted a Notice of Internal to Minister Sexwale for a response within an additional 30 days.

The legal deadline for Minister Sexwale is Monday 15 August 2011.

(Read the background to R2K’s demand for information from the Department of Human Settlements here and here. This report in the Sowetan details the auditor-general’s inspection of CTCHC houses.)

The residents of Newfields Village have struggled for over ten years to fulfill their right to adequate housing – a struggle that has been hampered at every corner by lack of transparency and lack of access to information from officials at every level of government.

At the same time that the community of Newfields Village is mobilising against the Protection of Information Bill in Parliament, the community’s struggle for adequate housing is equally mired by the existing climate of secrecy in South Africa.

As communities of the Right2Know campaign, we call on Minister Sexwale to release this report now!

For comment please contact:

Gary Hartzenberg (Newfields Village CRC Chairperson): 072 392 5859
Nkwame Cedile (R2K Western Cape coordinator): 078 227 6008

Cape Times: Give us housing delivery data or else, city is warned

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http://www.capetimes.co.za/give-us-housing-delivery-data-or-else-city-is-warned-1.1094405

July 6 2011 at 12:41pm

Regina Graham

THE Right2Know campaign is threatening further action against the City of Cape Town if it has not provided all the information requested in a PAIA application over a month ago.

Murray Hunter, national co-ordinator of the Right2Know Campaign, said that documents from the city were delivered yesterday.

“It is a huge pile of information that we received from the city, but is it actually answering the questions we asked?” said Hunter.

On May 24, community organisers from Blikkiesdorp, Zille-Raine Heights, Newfields Village Anti-Eviction Campaign and the Mandela Park backyarders joined Right2Know and submitted applications to the city requesting access to information about housing delivery and resettlement plans.

The group submitted Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) applications demanding access to budget reports, resettlement plans for families, housing allocation plans and documents showing land ownership in their communities.

The city was to provide a response within 30 days of the applications.

It had not respond within the 30 days, but did ask for more time and now the group was going to sort through all the information, Hunter said.

If the information they received from the city was not what they were looking for, the group was planning to take further action.

“We will decide in the next 48 hours if our demands have been met or not and we are planning to take to the streets in larger numbers next week,” Hunter said.

Matilda Groepe, co-ordinator of the Blikkiesdorp Anti-Eviction Campaign, said that she is tired of waiting for a response from the city about resettlement plans.

“The city has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with us,” Groepe said.

“We have been living in temporary housing for three years and want to know what they had in mind when they built that informal settlement.”

Once the Right2Know group gains access to the information, the next step is what the group will be able to do with it, Hunter said.

“These documents are not going to give them clean water or a recreational facility, so it’s part of a much longer, stronger process,” Hunter said.

regina.graham@inl.co.za