Niren Tolsi
Niren Tolsi is a freelance journalist whose interests include social justice, citizen mobilisation and state violence, protest, the Constitution and Constitutional Court, football and Test cricket.
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/ 4 September 2006

Govt says it will obey the court

The government has moved to limit the fallout from a warning by Kwazulu-Natal Judge Chris Nicholson that a ”grave constitutional crisis” could occur if it defied court orders. ”Government wishes to reassure all South Africans in general, and the judiciary in particular, that court judgements are binding on the state and that all state institutions will abide by court decisions.

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/ 1 September 2006

TAC turns the screws on Manto

What started weeks ago with Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) activists occupying the Human Rights Commission offices in Cape Town may end with the pressure group taking President Thabo Mbeki to court in an attempt to get Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang fired. The lobby group says there are several legal avenues that could be explored if the president were to be brought before the court.

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/ 18 August 2006

State ignores Aids deadline

The government’s foot-dragging response to a Durban High Court order to provide anti-retroviral treatment to HIV-positive prisoners continued this week when it ignored a deadline to give the High Court proof of its treatment plan for inmates at Durban’s Westville Prison.

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/ 17 July 2006

Water (not) on tap

Violet Mthembu, who cares for three people every day, says that many of the sick and aged she looks after are either physically or economically incapable of collecting water from one of the stand pipes dotting the township — the only place where residents can access running water. "Some people have [prepaid] cards, but for others it’s too expensive, so we use our own cards," she says.

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/ 4 July 2006

No freedom for the poor

The Foreman Road informal settlement nestles in a ravine leading down to the Palmiet River on the edge of the middle-class suburb of Clare Estate in Durban. From the top of the settlement the view across the river is of a swathe of trees and bushes, yet that is where the idyll ends.

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/ 23 June 2006

DKNY, Diesel, Durban

"The wonderful cultural mix in Durban definitely has an effect on my work, because there is no one style of dressing," said fashion designer Amanda Laird Cherry. "It’s so inspiring to walk down Grey Street and see people in punjabis and kurthas, men walking with skins in their belts, a traditional Shembe stick and a briefcase. You see this every day, and you can’t help but be inspired."