Activists picketed outside the hearing of the Commission of Inquiry into the Albert Street flame, calling for better housing.
- SERI has called on advocate Thulani Makhubela to recuse himself from the inquiry into the flame in Johannesburg that killed 77 people in August.
- In an application to the inquiry, SERI said Makhubela was an active supporter of Operation Dudula and Establish South Africans First.
- SERI said his presence on the inquiry could prejudice its work.
The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) has called for the recusal of advocate Thulani Makhubela from the Commission of Inquiry into the flame in Usindiso building in Albert Street, Johannesburg. The flame caused the death of 77 people and left 88 others injured.
Survivors who include 153 South Africans and 187 immigrants were placed in various shelters across the city. In November the survivors were reportedly evicted from the shelters under controversial circumstances which led to the arrest of 30 immigrants who are currently being kept at the Lindela Repatriation Centre.
Makhubela is one of three lawyers appointed to probe the flame.
The former residents said in their application: “The presence of Commissioner Makhubela in the Commission may undermine the credibility of its indispensable work, findings and recommendations, owing to a reasonably held apprehension of bias against him. This is because he is closely associated with and an active supporter of the Operation Dudula and Keep South Africans First groups. These are anti foreign groups.”
The application cited incidents where the Commissioner posted or reposted content related to immigrants, interacting with hashtags such as Establish South Africans First and content published by people alleged to maintain used used xenophobic rhetoric.
“If the recusal of Commissioner Makhubela is unsuccessful, there is a reasonable perception that may arise as to the neutrality, impartiality and integrity of the Commission itself,” they argued.
Activists from Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia, The Inner City Federation, Sustain Left, Inner City Resource Middle and General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) picketed outside the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre where the Commission was sitting on Tuesday. They demanded justice for the flame survivors, whom they claimed had been left in limbo by the City of Johannesburg.
They said immigrant flame victims had been unfairly treated and accused of not having documents though they had lost their documents in the flame. They called on government officials to offer humanitarian and emergency relief to the victims.
“Instead of fixing the housing system the government and political elites acquire resorted to scapegoating foreign nationals for their failures to deliver adequate services to every those who live in the country,” said GIWUSA President Mawetlwe Sebei.
Monica Hasamo from Inner City Resource Centre accused the City of excluding immigrants who survived the flame from its relocation position.
“The government should execute a proper investigation into the cause of the flame. The City has turned the buildings into slums by cutting water and electricity from vulnerable families,” she said. She called on the City to fix buildings for needy and vulnerable people regardless of their nationality.
Thobile Zondo, deputy chairperson of Inner City Federation, who has been living in the inner city since 2000, said: “What we want is for the government to see the incident at Albert Street as a reflection of its failures. It’s not only foreign nationals who reside in the unlit buildings; citizens are affected too. They should pause blaming foreigners and face the music.”
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Sky Herald
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”
Dream Killer
There was a postman who is always happy. in the other side there is harry who would just stares at the happy postman everyday and asks himself \”What\’s the secret of this man\”.
One day Harry decided to stop the postman and ask him why he\’s always smiling and happy, what he did.
the postman answered:\”Whenever I\’m handing a mail to a women I kisses her and I get more than just a kiss sometimes.\”
Harry liked the idea and went to a poste office and proposed for the job then he got it . In his first delivery Harry was so excited try the kissing thing out, and as he thought, there was a hot women in front of the first door, he went directly towared her and pasted her a kiss staight in the lips, in the middle of that her husband suddenly appeared in front him and asked:\”WTF ARE YOU DOING.\”
\”I\’m just delivering a \’kiss\’ was sent from China\” Harry answered in a sporadic tone.
\”Very nice, you came on time, I want to send a \’Fuck\’ with you to South Africa\” the husband responded while draging Harry into the house.