Despite the sunny summer’s day, 16-year-old Moipone Modise (not her real name) wears her red fleece jacket zipped up as she waits in the queue for antenatal care patients at Alexandra’s 8th Avenue clinic. She is five months pregnant. Each Tuesday and Thursday, the clinic offers the full range of antenatal services to expectant mothers from the township.

The Supreme Court of Appeal has given the City of Johannesburg a week to detail its plans to house 200 people it wants to evict from the inner city’s “bad” buildings. The court ordered the municipality to produce an affidavit in seven days. It was responding to the council’s appeal against a Johannesburg High Court ruling in March last year.

Plans to regenerate the inner city and to increase access to affordable housing for low-income families are being scuppered by corrupt landlords who exploit sectional title law to make quick profits. Landlords buy up flats and install tenants from whom they collect rent and payment for municipal services; but they do not pass these payments on to the municipality or the building’s body corporate.

The court appearance of Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata on drunk driving charges recently has turned a spotlight on the absence of procedures for disciplining errant judicial officers. Motata, released on R1 000 bail earlier this week after driving his Jaguar through a Sandton resident’s concrete fence last weekend, had his case remanded until February 27.

Despite the Supreme Court of Appeal’s recent ruling that drunk drivers would have to forfeit their vehicles, the ruling party has a history of leniency in disciplining top officials accused of driving under the influence. In November last year, former director general of correctional services Linda Mti was released on a warning after the car he was driving collided with another car — while he was allegedly drunk.

The recent arrest of Mulalo Sivhidzo in connection with the murder of Avhatakali Netshisaulu, the son of City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu, points to a possible national surge in contract killings, analysts say. Netshisaulu’s wife of several months, Sivhidzo, is alleged to have contracted several men to carry out the brutal murder last month of her husband.