The South African Human Rights Commission does not believe that the right to a fair and impartial hearing in a court of law is a fundamental human right in terms of its core function when it comes to Secular and Progressive Jews.

In a letter received some ten months after the filing of a complaint regarding the lack of a fair and impartial hearing in Lewis v Media24 and with specific reference to the corruption involving a labour broker acting as a judge of the Labour Court of South Africa, the SAHRC said:-

“The Commission, may reject any complaint, which –

(c) Is the subject of a dispute before a court of law, tribunal, any statutory body, any body with internal dispute resolution mechanisms, or settled between parties, or in which there is a judgment on the issues in the complaint or finding of such court of law, tribunal, statutory body or other body: Provided that the Commission may consider any complaint regarding the process and manner in which the hearing is conducted at such court of law, tribunal, statutory body or other body and if such complaint amounts to a violation of a fundamental right, it must be dealt with in terms of the Act and these Procedures.”

This comes despite an extensive submission and complaint regarding the process and manner in which the flawed 2010 labour hearing was held and in circumstances which merely demonstrate the ongoing corruption and fraud in the case.

The complainant, David Robert Lewis has yet to receive legal representation from South Africa’s legal system in a complex matter involving an apartheid media company which refuses to apologise for its active involvement in the apartheid system and which today is still opposed to the terms and findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Instead of assisting the investigation into the corruption at the Labour Court, the SAHRC has chosen to obfuscate the matter — first by reiterating the blatantly false findings of the Labour Court and then by failing to extend its core mandate and function to the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms of Secular Jews.

While the SAHRC has left avenues open for an appeal of the decision, (the commission also appears to be in the process of referring the matter to the Public Protector), its tardiness in taking ten months to arrive at a decision invariably leads one to compare similar treatment meted out to the Muslim community.

The SAHRC took little more than two weeks to leap to the assistance of Muslim school-children denied their cultural rights in school, but now has taken 10 months to arrive at a decision contradicting any assistance they may have rendered to the broader community in what is obviously a system of double-standards.

Keep South Africa Secular will be arranging a picket outside the SAHRC during lunch hour on Thursday 20 June 2013 in order to protest the erosion of secular freedoms in our country which include the right to observe ones religion in private and in a manner according to tradition and custom.

NOTE: As already argued before the Labour Court, Judaism is not monolithic, there exist many types of Jews.

KEEP SOUTH AFRICA SECULAR

SUPPORT SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

SUPPORT SEPARATION OF MOSQUE AND STATE

SUPPORT SEPARATION OF SYNAGOGUE AND STATE

NO TO RULE BY CLERICS

Tag: SAHRC