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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/ 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."

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/ 9 June 2006

Courts crack whip on pensions

KwaZulu-Natal social welfare and population development minister Nyanga Ngubane’s bid to avoid personally paying the legal costs of thousands of social grant applicants struggling for pensions and grants was thwarted by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein recently.

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/ 9 June 2006

Arrests point to political violence

The arrest of two men in connection with the murder of South African Communist Party member Mazwi Zulu in Durban’s troubled Umlazi township tends to contradict African National Congress claims that the violence is criminal rather than political. Nkosiyabo Ngubane and Sphiwe Nene were arrested at the home of Bhekisasa Xulu, the ANC councillor for Ward 80.

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/ 27 May 2006

Violence plagues KZN local elections

Splits in the African National Congress during local elections continue to plague the Durban township of Umlazi, with violent infighting resulting in at least three deaths. At the centre of the conflict is Bhekisasa Xulu, whose election as ANC ward councillor a group of residents unsuccessfully tried to stop.

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/ 22 May 2006

KZN police refuse to testify

National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi will not cooperate with KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele’s commission into alleged police bias because he does not want to be drawn into a provincial ANC power play. Sources at South African Police Service headquarters suggested that Selebi saw the commission as part of a turf war between Ndebele and provincial minister of safety and liaison Bheki Cele.

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/ 5 May 2006

Prisoners take fight for ARVs to court

Fifteen inmates of Durban’s Westville prison have gone to court to force the prison to provide them with HIV/Aids treatment, including anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs.
According to papers they have filed in the Durban High Court, 78 inmates of the Medium B prison have died of Aids-related diseases in the past year.