The police have displayed the muscle needed to clear off the protestors who insist they won’t go voluntarily.

Government has issued a statement calling on the refugees to abide by Wednesday’s Pretoria High Court ruling giving the refugees three-days to end their sit-in outside the UNHCR office and disperse.

The protesters responded yesterday by storming into the parking lot of the UNHCR premises.

The UN body has give police written permission to enter those premises, protected by diplomatic law, to remove them. 

However it is saying it does not want the police to detain any refugees.

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The matter has been postponed until next Wednesday to allow the SA police service and Home Affairs Department time to file papers explaining why they can’t implement the  residents’ demands.

When the Pretoria High Court agreed to hear the case on an urgent basis last Tuesday, the police and Home Affairs agreed to abide by the outcome.

They found, however, that the residents’ bid to get tough with the refugees who’ve been camping  on the pavement outside the UNHCR for month  is not practicable.

Judge Natvarlal Ranchod as stood the matter down for a third time urging the parties to find agreement on effective action. 

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The matter has been postponed until next Wednesday to allow the SA police service and Home Affairs Department time to file papers explaining why they can’t implement the  residents’ demands.

When the Pretoria High Court agreed to hear the case on an urgent basis last Tuesday, the police and Home Affairs agreed to abide by the outcome.

They found, however, that the residents’ bid to get tough with the refugees who’ve been camping  on the pavement outside the UNHCR for month  is not practicable.

Judge Natvarlal Ranchod as stood the matter down for a third time urging the parties to find agreement on effective action. 

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Human Rights watchdog groups are urging the South African Government and the United Nations to find an urgent and humanitarian solution to the problem.

South Africa’s capturing favourable world attention celebrating victory in the Rugby World Cup.

Authorities don’t want to see the television cameras move to South African police using heavy-handed tactics evicting  women and children who are demanding that they be moved abroad to protect them from xenophobic attacks.

The Pretoria High Court is being asked by residents, worried about the health and security risks posed by the protest, to force authorities to take action.

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Non Governmental Organizations are urging the UNHCR and the South African Government to find an urgent solution to the impasse.

In the High Court tomorrow Judge Ranchod will decide when the application by Brooklyn and Waterkloof residents to move the refugees will be heard.

The refugees, in the third week of their protest that involves camping outside the UNHCR offices, are demanding to be sent to another country of safety to escape xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The Kathrada Foundation has joined NGOs called for a humanitarian solution avoiding the police using water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades as they did against protesting refugees in Cape Town last week.  

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Judge Thokozile Masipa’s  rejected the State’s bid for leave to appeal the six-year jail sentence for murder she eventually  imposed on Pistorius.

ends intro

It was Judge Thokozile Masipa who found Oscar Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide and sent him to jail for five year  years.

The Appeal Court overturned that last December and found the legless athlete guilty of murder – giving rise to the  heavier sentence she imposed.

She pointed out that time that there was not a shred of evidence that Pistorius knew when he was firing through a toilet door that his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was on the other side.

Pistorius’s defence has been that he believed he was shooting at an intruder.

Masipa said in the Pretoria High Court today (Friday) that she’s  not persuaded that there are reasonable prospects of success for an appeal. She dismissed with costs the application for leave to appeal.

Earlier, Barry Roux, for Pistorius, argued that the State was merely dragging out legal processes and subjecting the former Paralympian to continued uncertainty.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued that deviating from the prescribed 15-year minimum sentence for murder induces a sense of shock.

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The opposition Democratic Alliance  has warned it’ll fight any attempt at shielding the president from having his day in court.

Last month, the High Court in Pretoria ruled the National Prosecuting Authority was wrong seven years ago to drop criminal charges against President Jacob Zuma.

The ruling was a victory for the official opposition, which asked the court to review the  decision by Abrhamas’ predecessor to withdraw the charges against Zuma.

The High Court found that Mokotedi  Mpshe breached a cardinal legal rule by not continuing with prosecuting with the charges that stem from an arms procurement deal in 1999.

Judge Aubrey Ledwaba found that the decision taken to drop corruption charges against Zuma was irrational.

He further ruled that the matter needed to be reviewed.

The National Prosecuting spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku says they’ve been studying the decision.

Their head Shaun Abrahams will address the nation with the final decision.

Head of the Democratic Alliance Federal Executive, James Selfe says the judgment was a unanimous decision of a full bench. It’s difficult to conceive that those judges would believe that a different court would come to another conclusion.

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