In the year under review the South African Commission on Human Rights dealt with more than 400 race-baed complaints.

It also handled more than 700 allegations of inequality.

The South African Human Rights Commission’s director Alexandra Fitzgerald says race-based discrimination presents the greatest challenge to the work of the body as evident by the volume and frequency of race related complaints received by the commission’s  head office in Gauteng – which is the busiest centre  – and provincial offices,  of which Cape Town carries the heaviest load.

This is the third year in which an increase in complaints has been recorded.

Fitzgerald says this does not necessarily reflect an increase in racism in South Africa.

Rather it shows  South Africans are becoming increasingly aware of their rights and that more and more people are being exposed to reports of unfairness, discrimination and racism on social media.

South Africa has a chequered  history with the declaration on human rights.

In 1948 the apartheid regime was one of eight governments  that refused to sign it.

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Authorities are blaming parents who’ve left it to the last minute to register their children in Gauging and the Western Cape.

They insist they will eventually accommodate all the pupils. Last year it took until May to do this.

Finding desks for pupils is a perennial problem in South Africa – particularly in the urban areas.

The biggest jam is in the first year of school and and the first year of high school.

Parents are advised to register for places at least six months before the start of the new year.

Fewer than half do this.

South Africa’s schools are not only grossly  overcrowded, but they are of lamentably poor standard

In the week that results were released from South Africa’s final high school certificate called matric, the international news publication, The Economist, has declared the schools in Africa’s wealthiest country as among the most inept in the world.

The publication reported that South Africa ranked 75th out of 76, in a league table of education systems drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

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The ANC Youth League, which Malema led before being expelled from the party three years ago, has asked the national defense force to set soldier on the EFF after Malema’s threat.

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ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa says they’ve made a formal accusation against Julius  Malema at a police station in Johannesburg.

Kodwa alleges Malema’s  utterances and conduct are treasonable.

HE says the ANC’s protecting  and defending  South Africa hard-earned democracy.

For  anyone to say they are prepared to remove a democratically elected government through undemocratic means such as through the barrel of a gun is a serious threat.

Both the  EFF and the largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, are trying to wrest control of key cities such as Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth from the ANC in municipal elections scheduled for August 3.

Malema says he’s happy to answer Kodwa’s challenge in court.

He says the EFF’s  running out of patience and is considering using force against the government because of its alleged use of violence against protesters.

He says the ANC’s rigged election in the most populous province of Gauteng before and the EFF won’t allow them to get away with it again.

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Mmusi Maimane says he may have to give up his ministrations from the pulpit now he has taken on this job of growing the Democratic Alliance which is dishonestly dismissed by the ruling African National Congress as a white party.
Mmusi Maimane will retain the parliamentary leadership of the Democratic Alliance where he earned his spurs confronting President Jacob Zuma.

His first task will be to raise funds for the DA to contest next year’s municipal elections which will be his first acid test as leader.

The DA controls the Western Cape and runs a close second to the ANC in the heartland province of Gauteng.

Maimane says in his inaugural speech at the congress in Port Elizabeth that he leads a party that espouses the principals and diversity cherished by the last Nelson Mandela.

He’s adamant there’s no place for racism and division in the DA.

There will be place for black veteran Wilmot James who opposed him for the post vacated by Helen Zille who led the party for eight years and retains the Western Cape provincial leadership.

Tony Leon, who was DA leader before Zille says Maimane will have to adopt strategies to continue the growth the party that stresses service above the acquisition of private wealth.

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