Monday, 4 June 2007

Ministers petitioned to release Maandagshoek Eighteen

The Ministers of Justice, Mrs Brigitte Sylvia Mabandla, and Safety and Security, Mr Charles Nqakula, have been petitioned by more than 300 international and local signatories to release the eighteen imprisoned Maandagshoek residents, which include two breastfeeding women and a pregnant woman.

The eighteen residents were arrested on the 23rd of May and have been held for 13 days for allegedly placing stones on a community road [1]. One mother has still not had access to her child, and people who were employed are fearful of loosing their jobs, due to the imprisonment.

Last week, groundWork, together with the Maandagshoek Development Community and Jubilee South Africa, made a plea to the international community through Friends of the Earth International [2]

This morning the Maandagshoek eighteen will appear in the Mecklenburg Court at 09:00 for the bail application. Five hundred Maandagshoek community representatives are protesting outside the court, calling for the people to be released immediately.

For more information:

• Emmanuel Makgoga: 082 343 5095
  Spokesperson for the Maandagshoek Development Community
• Richard Spoor: 083 627 1722
  Acting on behalf of the Maandagshoek Development Community
• Bobby Peek: 082 464 1383
  groundWork, Friends of the Earth, South Africa
• Ann Mayher: 082 398 6882
  Jubilee South Africa

Footnotes:

[1] See http://www.groundwork.org.za/Press%20Releases/28May07.asp for more information on the issue

[2] See http://www.foei.org/. Friends of the Earth International is the world's largest grassroots environmental network, uniting 70 national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With approximately 1.5 million members and supporters around the world, we campaign on today's most urgent environmental and social issues. We challenge the current model of economic and corporate globalisation, and promote solutions that will help to create environmentally sustainable and socially just societies.