Cape Town —
Calls for Prisoners to Have Compulsory DNA Samples Taken
A former deputy chairperson of the DNA Board, Dr Vanessa Lynch, sounded a warning that the delay in implementing the DNA Bill led to the release of thousands of prisoners since 2017, without taking their buccal samples. Lynch said some of the released prisoners could have gone back to crime and committed more offences. Lynch was addressing the National Assembly Committee on Police, on the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Bill. The committee is chaired by Tina Joemat-Petterson. Representatives from the SA Police, the DNA Board and labour union COSATU, also made presentations to the committee. The labour union's Matthew Parks said that the Bill should not focus only on taking DNA samples of prisoners convicted of Schedule 8 offences including rape, murder, human trafficking and robbery, but other crimes as well.
Good Party Calls for Overhaul of Immigration Policy
Good Party is calling on the government to relook the country's immigration policy, after clashes over jobs, between Lesotho and Zimbabwean nationals broke out on farms in Robertson in the Western Cape last week. Hundreds of Zimbabwean women and children were displaced and informal housing razed. General Secretary Brett Herron, who described the clashes as xenophobic, said that "tens of thousands of South African farmworkers are unemployed and live in squalor on the fringes of rural towns. This is a direct consequence of South Africa's non-existent immigration policy and porous borders, but it is also a situation for which farm-owners must account. it is they who have systematically reduced the number of South Africans they employ and accommodate on their farms, in favour of cheaper and more exploitable foreign labour", Herron said.
Clover Impasse With Striking Workers Heads to Labour Court
Unions representing workers who have been on strike since November 22, 2021, say they will seek recourse in the labour court as none of the interventions to resolve the deadlock between them and the dairy company.
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The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) and Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) have vowed to intensify their fight against austerity measures at Clover after their latest negotiations with firm collapsed.
Thousands of workers are calling for an end to factory closures, retrenchments and salary cuts. Milco, a subsidiary of the Israeli Central Bottling Company, bought 60% of Clover in 2019 with the approval of the South African government and the Competition Commission.
Trevor Noah Responds to Ye
Trevor Noah has finally responded to Ye, following the 44-year-old rapper's slur to Noah's criticism of the way in which Kim Kardashian is being harassed for wanting to get on with her life, after divorcing Ye, also known as Kanye West. The 44-year-old rapper was banned from Instagram for 24 hours and has been dropped from performing at the Grammy Awards because of his "troublesome online behaviour". The rapper - now known as Ye - posted a photo of Noah and captioned it with the mocking and racist lyrics, "K**n baya my lord k**n baya K**n baya my lord K**n baya Oooo' lord K**n baya." Noah tweeted "I said counsel Kanye, not cancel Kanye."
