Canada SA refugee ruling 'racist'

South Africa's ruling African National Congress has condemned as "racist" a decision by Canada to grant a white South African man refugee status.

Brandon Huntley, 31, had told officials in Canada he could not return to South Africa after seven different attacks.

They included three stabbings, which he said he had suffered as a result of his skin colour.

His lawyer said he was granted asylum because the South African authorities were unable to protect their citizens.

But ANC spokesman Brian Sokutu told the BBC that the decision would "only serve to perpetuate racism" in South Africa.

"We take this matter very seriously because it has something to do with tarnishing the image of the country," he said.

Race is a sensitive issue in the country, still scarred by decades of white-minority rule, which ended in 1994.

Hundreds of thousands of white South Africans have left the country since the end of apartheid, many citing rising crime and the difficulty of finding jobs.

'Alarming'

Mr Sokutu said President Jacob Zuma was committed to fighting crime in South Africa, which has an annual murder rate of 18,000, but not on the basis of colour.

"We're committed to creating a stable and safe environment for all South Africans, regardless of the colour of their skin and we think that dealing with crime along racial lines can only serve to divide the South African nation," he told the BBC's World Today programme.

Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board ruled last week that Mr Huntley could stay in Canada.

Canada's Ottawa Sun newspaper quoted the panel's chairman, William Davis, as saying he would stand out like a "sore thumb" due to his colour in any part of South Africa.

Mr Huntley's lawyer Russell Kaplan said the asylum was granted because of discrimination - not only over crime - but also because as a white man he would find it difficult to get a job.

"The big question throughout was - was this just an act of criminality or was there a racial motivation? And every single time there was evidence that they were not just victims of criminality, that there was a racial component in the incidents," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

Bridgette Lightfoot of Homecoming Revolution, which encourages white South Africans to return home, disputed the claims.

"I myself have lived overseas for six years and I've been back for eight months and we really don't feel there's this racial prejudice against white people," she told the BBC.

Sympathy

The South African Institute of Race Relations said the country does still face racial challenges.

But in a statement the institute's deputy head Frans Cronje said he found the reports of "the persecution of white South Africans to be largely without foundation."

On the streets of Johannesburg, opinions were mixed about the case.

"Thugs attack you because they believe you have something they want," said Diketso Lekhelebane.

"There is still the perception that white people have money all the time maybe that's why he was targeted."

"As a white South African I understand and support the basis for affirmative action but as a mother of three I'm concerned about my children's future and what kind of jobs they will get," university lecturer Tracey McKay told the BBC. continues here

Bridgette Lightfoot and I quote, "I myself have lived overseas for six years and I've been back for eight months and we really don't feel there's this racial prejudice against white people,", then I suggest she visits here and other such sites in order to be disavowed of such rubbish, there is an ongoing genocide against white South Africans, an unreported genocide, we can only hope and pray that now, due to Mr Huntley’s victory, many more shall return home to relative safety.

White flees ‘SA oppression

A WHITE South African man has been granted refugee status in Canada after an immigration board ruled that his “fear of persecution by African South Africans” was justified.

Brandon Huntley, 31, who grew up in Mowbray, Cape Town, made his refugee claim in April last year.

On Thursday, in Ottawa, Ontario, the only member of the immigration board to hear Huntley’s application, William Davis, ruled that Huntley would “stick out like a sore thumb due to his colour in any part of the country”.

Davis added that the unemployed irrigation sprinkler salesman had given “clear and convincing” proof of the state’s “inability or unwillingness to protect him”.

Huntley’s lawyer, Russell Kaplan, said that he is a human-rights lawyer who emigrated to Canada 20 years ago to escape the apartheid government’s discrimination against black South Africans.

Kaplan told The Times that Huntley had been attacked seven times in South Africa by black people who called him a “settler” and a “white dog”.

Kaplan’s sister, Lara, who emigrated to Canada last year, testified about the torture and murder of her other brother, Robert, by robbers in South Africa in 1997. Both Lara and Huntley gave evidence in camera in a full-day hearing on August 18.

Between 30 and 40 newspaper clippings were presented as evidence of life in South Africa.

“One article exhibited was published in [the Daily Sun in 2004] by Africa Ka Mahamba. [It was] entitled ‘Taking from whites is not a crime’,” Kaplan said.

The article quotes the leader of the “Uhuru cultural club” as telling youngsters who attended a Human Rights Day celebration to steal from whites because “it is the right thing to do”.

“The judgment was a direct criticism of the South African government,” Kaplan said.

He said that affirmative action and black economic empowerment were two of the aspects that were taken into account in considering Huntley’s application for refugee status in Canada. “These legislated policies, even though there is an explanation for them, are discriminatory. ”continues here

Quarter of men in South Africa admit rape, survey finds

• Research exposes culture of sexual violence
• Government criticised for 'woeful' conviction rate

One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.

Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.

South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.

The study into rape and HIV, by the country's Medical Research Council (MRC), asked men to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device to guarantee anonymity. The method appears to have produced some unusually frank responses.

Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: "We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."

Jewkes and her colleagues interviewed a representative sample of 1,738 men in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.

The study, which had British funding, also found that men who are physically violent towards women are twice as likely to be HIV-positive. They are also more likely to pay for sex and to not use condoms.It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."

Any woman raped by a man over the age of 25 has a one in four chance of her attacker being HIV-positive.

One in 10 men said they had been forced to have sex with another man. Many find it difficult to report such attacks to the police in subcultures where the concept of homosexuality is taboo.

South Africa's government has been repeatedly criticised for failing to address the crisis. Only 7% of reported rapes are estimated to lead to a conviction. Jewkes said: "There's been a lot of concern about the way the criminal justice system works, because it's still woeful."

Before his election as president, Jacob Zuma stood trial for the rape of a family friend. His supporters demonstrated at the court house, verbally attacked his accuser and sang "burn the bitch, burn the bitch". Zuma was eventually acquitted.

Jewkes added: "The social space for debating these gender issues is now smaller than it was a few years ago. We need our government to show political leadership in changing attitudes. We need South African men, from the top to the grassroots, to take responsibility."

Anti-rape campaigners said the shocking figures demonstrated the need for reform. Dean Peacock, co-director of the Sonke Gender Justice project, said: "We need to make sure the criminal justice system is held to account. We have lots of discussion in this country, but not enough action is taken to ensure that perpetrators will face consequences."

Zuma, a polygamist, was criticised for emphasising his Zulu tribal identity and singing militant songs during this year's election campaign. He made comments that outraged anti-Aids and gender campaigners.

Peacock added: "We're at a complicated moment in South African history with revived traditionalism and there's a danger of gender transformation being lost.

"We hear men saying, 'If Jacob Zuma can have many wives, I can have many girlfriends.' The hyper-masculine rhetoric of the Zuma campaign is going to set back our work in challenging the old model of masculinity."continues here

Oprah Winfrey school in South Africa faces second sex scandal

The South African school established by Oprah Winfrey has been hit by its second sex scandal in two years, with seven pupils suspended for displaying 'inappropriate behaviour' towards other children.



The girls were suspended last week for the alleged sexual harassment of fellow pupils at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy School For Girls in Henley-on-Clip, near Johannesburg.

According to the Afrikaans on Sunday newspaper, one 15-year-old "preyed" on a schoolmate and coerced others into lying to officials investigating the alleged incidents. Six other pupils have been excluded from the $46 million (£32 million) girls-only boarding school after being alleged to have touched each other intimately, or "intimidating others into partaking of inappropriate behaviours".

A letter sent to one of the suspended girls' parents is said to have read: "You have been found guilty of physical contact of a sexual nature with another pupil on campus, harassment, bullying other girls on campus and of being dishonest by not telling investigators the whole truth".

The girl claims the accusations are false and has blamed other girls.

A spokesman for the Academy, which was established in January 2007, confirmed the suspensions.

"It is because they contravened the school's code of conduct," said Lisa Halliday. Declining to elaborate on the circumstances behind the girls' exclusions, she added: "We regard the incident as confidential."

It is the second controversy to affect the school since its star-studded opening event - which was attended by celebrities including Mariah Carey and Spike Lee.

Just ten months after the first pupils were admitted, 15 girls claimed to be victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a matron employed by the establishment. Virginia Tiny Makgobo faced 13 charges, including indecent assault, common assault, assaulting a minor to perform an indecent act and verbal abuse of pupils. She denied the charges and is due back in court on June 1.

On the back of the assault claims, a tearful Miss Winfrey - who has spoken of being a victim of abuse herself - said: "This has been one of the most devastating experiences, if not the most devastating experience, of my life. But like all such experiences there is much to be learned".

She promised to "clean house from top to bottom", firing the headmistress and all dormitory matrons, and giving schoolgirls mobile phones with her personal number pre-programmed into the memory.

"These girls are like my children," she said at the time.

"That's not just rhetoric for me. I take their futures and the possibility for what their futures hold very seriously."

Miss Winfrey poured millions of dollars from her personal fortune into the school, which aims to educate 450 high-achieving female students a year by 2011.

Facilities at the high-security campus include a theatre, computer and science laboratories and a library, and the curriculum aims to empower students to become leaders of their society. As well as a high-level education, the TV host's academy provides free food, uniforms and learning materials for its underprivileged intake.

Miss Winfrey said: "Indiscretions resulting in disciplinary action are common in schools all over the world. Unfortunately, because of my name these common infractions place the Academy in the media spotlight.

As each of the girls enrolled, she agreed to adhere to the school’s Honor Code and Code of Conduct policy, which values personal integrity and ensures an environment of shared trust and community. I’m disappointed that several of our students chose to disregard the school’s rules. continues here