Latest resources

Trends in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion

Armchair discussion on the National Prosecuting Authority, 22 November 2016, Jean Redpath

Electing Councillors: a Guide to Municipal Elections

This manual outlines the electoral system for local government in South Africa. It deals with the right to vote, the different categories of municipalities, ward and PR councillors, how to field candidates, by-elections, conduct during elections as well as the calculation of results. It is a detailed manual, designed to assist civil society organisations, the media and electoral officers.

Submission to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights: Thematic Alternate report on Criminal Justice and Human Rights in South Africa

Submitted to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in response to South Africa’s Second Periodic Report under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to be reviewed at the 58th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Submission to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights: Thematic Alternate report on Criminal Justice and Human Rights in South Africa

Submitted to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in response to South Africa’s Second Periodic Report under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to be reviewed at the 58th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee: Overview of cross cutting issues in Alternate Reports on South Africa

This overview of cross cutting issues emanates from five alternate thematic reports submitted by civil society organisations (the Alternate Reports) in response to the Initial Report by South Africa (the State Report), to be reviewed by the UN Human Rights Committee during its 116th session. The Alternate Reports which provided the basis for this overview are:  Recognition of Civil and Political Rights: A continued struggle for Transgender and Intersex Persons in South Africa  Shadow Report on Participatory Democracy to South Africa’s State Report and their Responses to the List Of Issues On The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights (ICCPR)  Thematic Report on Criminal Justice and Human Rights in South Africa  Thematic Report on the Rights of Migrants and Asylum Seekers in South Africa  Thematic Report on Violence Against Women and LGBTI Persons in South Africa

Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee: Thematic Report on Human Rights and Criminal Justice in South Africa

Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee in response to the Initial Report by South Africa under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights at the 116th session of the Human Rights Committee

Civic Protests and Local Government in South Africa Working Paper Series No. 2

The Civic Protest Barometer (CPB) measures trends in protest action in South Africa's municipalities. The 2016 CPB is an update of the CPB published in 2014 (Working Paper Series No. 1), which covered the period 2007 to 2014. The current CPB (Working Paper Series No. 2) analyses data from January 2007 to July 2016 (inclusive).

Technical Note_Civic Protests Barometer_2016 (2).pdf

This research study presents information on the frequency and the nature of civic (service delivery protests) throughout South Africa. The study as a whole draws on different methods for three periods. The first period dates from the inception of the study in 2007 until the end of 2011. A new method, currently still being used, was adopted for the period after 2011. Once gain the method was changed in 2016. The initial component derived protest records from the media reports of community protests contained in the Community Protest Monitor in the South African Local Government Briefings Report1 and Lexis Nexis online database. Data was collected monthly from 2007 until August 2012 and displayed in a series of barometers that analyze overarching trends and patterns in protest activity over the period. After 2011 the method changed to rely on on-line news aggregators and social media reports rather than Lexis-Nexis and the Local Government Briefings.

09122015 - The Capable Cities Index Performance

The Performance Index (PI) is the last of the three indices that collectively comprise the Capable Cities Index (CCI). The other two components, the Compliance (Coml) and Capacity (CI) Indices, were published earlier this year. The series will be concluded with the publication of an index that combines the three indices into composite index. This Capable Cities Index provides a means to compare the overall sustainability of municipalities in terms of how well they are managed.

State of evictions report in South Africa 2014

Numerous eviction incidents occurred in South Africa during 2014, as a result of which many people were left homeless despite the legal safeguards that should protect them. The courts also decided a number of eviction cases and applications in that year. This study examines these incidents and cases with a view to reviewing the state of eviction in South Africa in 2014 and drawing lessons and conclusions from it.

State of Maternal Health in South Africa

Findings from Eastern Cape and Gauteng

Constructing pre-trial detention indicators for African contexts: Problems and proposals

This discussion paper arose from the conundrum faced by a paralegal organisation working in an African country in demonstrating both that pre-trial detention is a problem in that country, and that their work has an impact on the problem. The indicators currently employed by states and organisations relating to pre-trial detention have a range of shortcomings in the African context. These shortcomings need to be understood in interpreting indicator values. Indicators should be adjusted, and additional indicators should be incorporated into data collection practice in order to provide a more complete and accurate picture of pre-trial detention in Africa. This paper is intended as a starting point for a broader discussion of the pitfalls and possibilities for the development of indicators in relation to pre-trial detention in Africa

Constructing pre-trial detention indicators for African contexts: Problems and proposals

This discussion paper arose from the conundrum faced by a paralegal organisation working in an African country in demonstrating both that pre-trial detention is a problem in that country, and that their work has an impact on the problem. The indicators currently employed by states and organisations relating to pre-trial detention have a range of shortcomings in the African context. These shortcomings need to be understood in interpreting indicator values. Indicators should be adjusted, and additional indicators should be incorporated into data collection practice in order to provide a more complete and accurate picture of pre-trial detention in Africa. This paper is intended as a starting point for a broader discussion of the pitfalls and possibilities for the development of indicators in relation to pre-trial detention in Africa

Arrested in Africa: An exploration of the issues

Recent research and advocacy efforts have drawn attention to the excessive use of and prolonged pre-trial detention in Africa. At any given moment there are roughly 1 million people in Africa’s prisons. Far more move through prisons each year. Their stay in prison, regardless of duration, starts with being arrested. Substantially more people are arrested than those who end up in prison for pre-trial detention. Pre-trial detention figures are thus a poor indicator of contact with the criminal justice system. The purpose of arrest and subsequent detention of a suspect is essentially to ensure the attendance of the person in court or for another just cause. The police’s powers of arrest are, in theory, curtailed to the extent that the arresting officer must be able to provide reasons for the arrest and continued police detention. Police officials have considerable discretion in executing arrests, especially when arresting without a warrant. This exploratory report focuses on arresting without a warrant and starts off with setting out the legal requirements in this regard by way of a case study. In order to understand current arrest practices, the report provides a brief description of the history of policing in Africa and concludes that much of what was established by the colonial powers has remained intact, emphasising high arrest rates, a social disciplinarian mode of policing, supported by myriad petty offences that justify arrest without a warrant. This combination enables widespread corruption and results in negative perceptions of the police. The report further argues that given the wide discretionary powers of the police to arrest without a warrant, it follows that not all people are at an equal risk of arrest, but rather that it is the poor, powerless and out-groups that are at a higher risk of arrest based on non-judicial factors. The report concludes with a number of recommendations calling for further research, decriminalisation of certain offences and restructuring of the police in African countries. Report by Lukas Muntingh

The Capable Cities Index: The capacity of cities

The Capable Cities Index (CCI) is a composite index that ranks the 27 largest cities in South Africa on the basis of their consistency in maintaining high levels of capacity, performance and compliance over the period 2010 to 2014. A capable city is one that maintains consistently high scores in all three components of capability.

Submission to South Africa's Parliament - 2015 strategic planning session

This submission to the South African parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services' strategic planning session addresses the issues of long periods of pre-trial detention, low prosecution rates, the independence of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, human rights abuses in prison, sentencing reform and effective prison oversight.

Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

This contains the UN's vision for the future of global development, and is to be endorsed in September 2015.

Municipal Audit Consistency Barometer MAC-B3 (2015 update) 2009/10 to 2013/14: Audit consistency as a measure of resilience in local government

This is the third edition of the MAC-B Audit Consistency Barometer to be published. The first MAC-B was published before the national and provincial elections of May 2014. This iteration (referred to as MAC-B3) is an update to both that version and the update (MAC-B2) published last year. MAC-B2 represented a key milestone in local government development in that the period then reviewed coincided with the term of the national administration appointed after the 2009 national election. Until then the instrumental Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs was under the stewardship of Sicelo Shiceka. After the 2014 election a new administrative cycle under the stewardship of Pravin Gordhan as minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) began.

Journal Article: Unconscionable and irrational: SAPS human resource allocation

The Khayelitsha Commission revealed that areas that are predominantly populated by people who are poor and black are systematically allocated only a small fraction of the average per capita allocation of police personnel in the Western Cape. These areas also suffer among the highest rates of murder and serious violent crime in the province. The allocation of human resources to policing impinges on various constitutional rights. Given the inequity and irrationality apparent in the allocation of police personnel, the Khayelitsha Commission recommended that this method be urgently revised. This article reviews the evidence heard on the allocations and the method currently used to allocate police personnel, suggests an alternative method, and calls on the government to heed the recommendation of the Khayelitsha Commission that the state urgently revise its method of allocation of policing resources. By Jean Redpath and Fairouz Nagia-Luddy