Radio Days Africa: why radio is still key in communications for rights and governance in Africa

Lazaro Bamo stood up in front of an attentive crowd at Radio Days Africa last Thursday to talk about his newly funded project, Face2Face.

He told the group that two months ago he pitched his project idea several times to a room full of people, all competing for funding during an intensive Global Innovation Competition week in Jakarta. On the last day of the competition, Bamo sweated through the final pitch in front of cameras (and a couple of hundred people) at a formal function up on stage until finally, along with four other projects, Face2Face won gold, meaning the project was considered innovative enough to be funded byMaking All Voices Count.

So, he said, speaking at Radio Days Africa would be much easier than that. The crowd laughed – we’re all communicators, but we’ve all been nervous presenters too.

Face2Face’s Lazaro Bamo with Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi from the Wits Justice Project

Radio Days Africa

Bamo was part of a panel at Radio Days Africa that showed the strength of African innovation and the demand for community radio.

Radio Days Africa is the largest meeting of radio innovators and talent on the continent.  It is based at the University of the Witwatersrand and is run by Wits Radio Academy’s Franz Kruger. The conference this year saw a larger focus on Africa than previous years (this was the 6^th year of the conference) and it gathered speakers from across the continent, including Zambia, Nigeria and Mozambique, to talk about the importance of radio.

Who says radio isn’t innovative?

Only people who aren’t listening and learning. In 2015 there were five gold winners at the Global Innovation Competition, and two of these winners were involved with community radio – which says a lot about the critical role radio plays in Africa, not just in rural areas, but as an established voice in the lives and homes of most people in the continent.

Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi, Project Coordinator of Wits Justice Project, introduced the panel and said that these two projects winning in Jakarta showed how important the medium was on the continent, despite the rise of the internet and social media. Both winning projects were on the panel.

 

• Face2Face: The first was Bamo’s Face2Face initiative which aims to track the experiences of people using Mozambique’s new Right to Information Law to obtain public information. Documenting their experiences and partnering with community radio, the project will highlight and challenge the barriers that still remain in getting information that is now legally supposed to be in the public domain.

 

• The Citizen Justice Network: The second project was The Citizen Justice Network. Paul McNally created the Citizen Justice Network (CJN) with Wits Justice Project and Wits Radio Academy and discussed how the concept went from a discussion, to a proposal, through the Making All Voices Count mentoring programme, to being implemented. The CJN will train junior paralegals at community advice offices to be journalists and help them produce radio stories on legal issues for their local community radio station. In this way, the CJN will operate as a bridge between those with the information around justice in a community and those who desperately need it, allowing Wits Justice Project in Johannesburg to identify patterns of miscarriages of justice across the country and implement this information in their ongoing advocacy. It will also – of great interest to the folk at Radio Days – promote quality and unbiased radio documentary and give producers the chance to distribute their content across the country and on-line.

So what’s next?

Bamo and McNally fielded questions from the audience and gave their thanks. They are both about to start their pilot projects with hope to scale them up, grow the funding and give a voice to the people in their respective areas. The two promise to meet in Mozambique next time (Bamo’s home turf) and collaborate further, but know they are supported by a vibrant and still-growing radio community who are challenging assumptions about governance and rights all across Africa.

Roundup of criminal justice stories making news this week

“Number of children awaiting trial drops”: SA News, May 31.

Sourced from the Department of Correctional Services

According to the Department of Correctional Services, the number of children awaiting trial in the country’s remand detention facilities has decreased by 74%.In the 2013/14 financial year, 129 awaiting-trial children were held in the country’s remand detention facilities, down from 497 in 2009/10. The number of sentenced children has also declined by 62.1% between 2009/10 and 2014/15 financial years, from 538 to 204. The department said it refers awaiting trial children to courts for consideration after every 14 days of detention, to facilitate the conclusion of their cases, in line with the Child Justice Act.

“70 phones seized in Durban prison”: IOL, June 1.

The Department of Correctional Services is seeking to eradicate illegal use of cell-phones in correctional centres. This comes after a raid at the Westville Prison last week Friday, May 29. The raid, by the Emergency Support Team (EST), discovered an inmate operating his taxi business from his cell, 200 sim cards and 70 cell-phones. Of the discovered SIM cards, 128 were found on one inmate. The most unexpected find was 50 litres of home brewed beer in an open bucket under a bunk bed in a cell shared by more than 60 men. The implicated offenders were immediately moved to Kokstad prison and will remain there while investigations continue.

“About 1500 police officers attacked in 2014/15”: SA News, June 2.

According to police, 86 police officers lost their lives in the 2014/2015 financial year, which is an increase from 77 officers in the 2013/2014 reporting period. Additionally, a total of 1501 police officers were attacked in the 2014/2015 financial year. This is an increase of 329 attacks of police officers than the 2013/2014 financial year.

“Taking the phones out of cells: Are signal jammers the answer?” Daily Maverick, June 5

Clare Ballard, an attorney who works on the panel reform programme for Lawyers for Human Rights says that the only way to deal with phones in prisons is for the Department of Correctional Services to start “to simply police their own systems more effectively”.Wits Justice Project (WJP), project coordinator, Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi spoke to the Daily Maverick about the violence that is often inflicted on inmates during these types of raids. Erfani-Ghadimi mentioned of the torture cases the WJP receives which frequently starts with officials looking for cell-phones.

 

 

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Justice & Correctional Services Department of Justice & Correctional Services’ Budget 2015-2016

10 April 2015

1. This submission on the Department of Justice & Correctional Services 2015-2016 budget is from the Detention Justice Forum (DJF), a civil society coalition that works to protect the rights and well-being of prisoners and others in detention in South Africa.

2. The DJF is gravely concerned with the wasteful defence of civil claims against the Department and the high amount of contingent liabilities that continue to be projected by the Department. As recorded in the 2013-2014 Annual Report, the Department reported R984, 317, 000 in contingent liabilities. There is no information publicly available on what portion of these contingent liabilities will result in payment to the State Attorney for legal expenses incurred in defending civil claims for damages by current and former inmates. However, we assert that the Department often defends in court claims that it should rather settle out of court, thereby wasting limited public money that could be better spent protecting the public and addressing the conditions that led to the claims in the first place.

3. The 2012 case of Lee v Minister of Correctional Services is a useful example. In this case, the Constitutional Court held the Department’s wrongful acts and omissions caused Mr Lee to become infected with and develop active tuberculosis (TB). The Department was ordered to pay R270 000 in damages to Mr Lee. In addition, the Department was ordered to pay the legal costs for Mr Lee’s representatives at Jonathan Cohen & Associates, which totalled R2 074 646.74 and also included the costs of counsel in three different courts. Further, the Department will have incurred its own expenses in defending this case, the total amount of which we do not know, and would also have included the costs of counsel in three different courts.

4. Three other ex-inmates are also suing the Department for damages for developing TB in prison. Two of the three, Zaid Seedat and Glen Spencer, are represented by Jonathan Cohen & Associates. In 2009, the State attorney CJ Benkenstein who was representing the Department in Lee v Minister of Correctional Services, wrote to Mr Cohen asking him to remove Mr Seedat and Mr Spencer’s matters from the roll, stating, “If you are successful in the Lee matter…the other two matters may be settled.” The Department has reneged on this commitment and is now aggressively, and we submit fruitlessly, defending against the claims.

5. Not only is the Department wastefully defending these claims with virtually identical facts as those in the Lee case, it is doing so by repeating its arguments, particularly as to factual causation, that failed in that case.

6. Instead of wastefully defending against the claims by Mr Seedat and others similarly situated, we assert that the Department should use its resources to mitigate against the spread of TB behind bars. It can do so, inter alia, by ensuring that it complies with its own Standing Orders around cell occupancy rates and reducing overcrowding in its facilities. Studies indicate that these measures alone would decrease the spread of TB by 30%. The Department can also ensure that there are clear ventilation guidelines that are developed and adhered to. It can also mitigate risks by respecting inmates’ constitutional rights to exercise, nutrition, and adequate healthcare.

7. We acknowledge the National Task Team for TB and HIV in Correctional Services is working to improve the Department’s performance on these infectious diseases, but assert that the Department must invest more in strategies that ensure its respect for inmates’ human rights as a strategy to stem the spread of TB, as well as to reduce its own risk of continuing to be sued for damages in similar cases.

8. In light of the above, we recommend the following:

8.1. The Department should stop its wasteful expenditure trying once again to defend against claims for damages in matters that have already been dealt with by the courts.

8.2. The Department should re-direct resources to ensuring it complies with constitutional standards, laws, policies, and its own standing orders, that, if adhered to, would decrease the spread of TB in prisons.

Signed, The Detention Justice Forum

Endorsed by:

1. SECTION27

2. Wits Justice Project

3. Sonke Gender Justice

4. Egon Oswald & Associates

5. Jonathan Cohen & Associates

6. Just Detention International – South Africa

7. Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative

8. Lawyers for Human Rights

Contacts:

1. Emily Keehn, Sonke Gender Justice, emily@genderjustice.org.za

2. Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi, Wits Justice Project, nooshin.erfani-ghadimi@wits.ac.za

3. John Stephens, SECTION27, stephens@section27.org.za

4. Sasha Gear, Just Detention International – South Africa, sgear@justdetention.org.za

Bram Fischer’s spirit lives on at Wits

“The spirit of Bram Fischer is still alive at Wits….Yesterday, Joel Joffe and I were privileged to meet the members from Wits Justice Project and the Law Council Student Body who have done fantastic work…”

These were the words of Sir Nicholas Stadlen, a former British High Court Judge, who led the 17-member panel discussion at the Bram Fischer colloquium hosted by Wits University, on 26 March 2015. The Wits Law School honoured Fisher with an honorary doctorate of laws on the same day.

(Listen to his full speech here.)

A day before the colloquium, the Wits Justice Project team had an opportunity to meet Sir Nicholas Stadlen and the founder of the Joffe Charitable Trust – Lord Joel Joffe – which helps fund the Project. Lord Joffe was also part of the legal team which defended the Rivonia trialists, along with Bram Fischer and George Bizos.

Wits played an important role in the history of the struggle against apartheid and injustice. Many leaders of the struggle and the lawyers who acted for them studied and formed lifelong friendship there. These include Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, Ruth First, George Bizos and Joel Joffe.

Sir Nicholas Stadlen, Lord Joel Joffe, Prof Anton Harber with some of the members of the Wits Justice Project team.

The Bram Fischer Colloquium

This year marks 50 years since Abram (Bram) Fisher was arrested in 1965. In 1963 and 1964, he had been the defence advocate of the accused in the Rivonia trial. He was arrested in 1966 for his own political activities against the apartheid government and later died in 1975 still a prisoner of the apartheid state. Fischer was hailed as a “warm, kind and generous man who inspired love and admiration even among those who did not share his political beliefs”. At the time he was serving a life sentence for furthering the aims of communism and conspiracy to overthrow the apartheid government.

The Wits Colloquium panel included, among others, Mandela’s co-accused Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni and Denis Goldberg, as well as their lawyers George Bizos and Lord Joel Joffe, and Fischer’s daughters, Ilse Wilson and Ruth Rice.

Panellist of Bram Fischer colloquium hosted at Wits. Photo by Wits University

Giving a speech at the honorary graduation ceremony in the afternoon, Lord Joffe paid tribute to his former co-council in the Rivonia Trial defence team, saying one of the many things he had learned from Fischer, “is that law is about justice, which appears often to be overlooked by some lawyers in running their practices. Inherent in the honourable profession of law, should surely be a commitment to justice, and to use the law to achieve justice, both for those who can afford to pay, and for those who cannot”.

 

Related readings:

‘I did what was Right’ Statement from the dock by Bram Fischer after the conclusion of the Rivonia Trial in 1966.

A message from underground, By Bram Fischer

Who was Abram ‘Bram’ Fischer,

Biography of Bram Fischer

A brilliant legal mind, March 26

The law is about justice, March 26

Unapologetic ask: support us in upholding human rights

If, like most South Africans, the events of the last few weeks have given you space for reflection on the state of our country, you may have also thought about ways in which you can contribute to its improvement. If your interest lies in the rule of law, human rights and upholding the Constitution, then I am unapologetic in asking you to donate to the Wits Justice Project.

The Wits Justice Project is committed to investigating miscarriages of justice, to exposing cases in which human dignity has been infringed and to improving the functioning of SA’s criminal justice system. Each one of us, as a result of unlawful arrests, botched investigations and unnecessary court delays could potentially be victims of SA’s increasingly dysfunctional criminal justice system. It could be you, it could be me!

Thanks to our generous donors we have been able to dedicate many hours, days and months to conducting in-depth award-winning investigations, exposing torture and injustice on both local and international platforms – unconstrained by the time-limitations of most news rooms. Our 2013 annual report (available here) showcases our achievements towards these goals in the last year.

Your support will enable the WJP to continue our in-depth work and provide a degree of oversight to the police, courts and prisons of South Africa. Please contact me directly, or use the following link on the Wits Foundation web site to make a direct donation: http://www.witsfoundation.co.za/givejustice.asp

Wishing you a safe, happy holiday.

Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi

Project Coordinator