As a five-story building collapsed in George, people are still trapped beneath the rubble. The building that was under construction gave in on 75 Victoria Street. The road has been blocked off from York Street.
George Mayor Leon van Wyk says that they were told to be quiet and to switch off any equipment because the rescuers were talking to somebody under the rubble and trying to remove parts of the debris to get to the person or persons trapped.
The operations to try and get to the people down there were expected to go through the night. In the early hours of the morning, at 12:45 am they extracted another patient. They are still searching for 51 unaccounted people.
Human Rights Watch is warning against what it calls toxic language against foreigners. People in power specifically will not be allowed to use migrants as pawns, and they will not be allowed to endanger people's lives.
According to Human Rights Watch’s Nomathamsanqa Masiko-Mpaka says that political parties must not use toxic language, particularly directed at foreign nationals. While speaking to Newzroom Afrika, she says that it is important for everyone to note a few things:
- When we are talking about anti-immigrant rhetoric in South Africa, it is not taking place in a vacuum. It is taking place in a context where South Africa has been grappling with sporadic and sometimes lethal xenophobic harassment and violence against African and Asian foreign nationals living in the country. These include both documented and undocumented.
- In South Africa, there are vigilante groups that operate in our communities and target and harass foreign nationals. They target them by preventing them from doing business and by preventing them from accessing health care in public hospitals.
- While we have service delivery protests that are on the surge leading up to the May 29 elections, citizens are angry, frustrated, disillusioned, and facing all kinds of socio-economic challenges. These challenges include accessing basic services in their communities.
This is the context. She goes on to say that there are politicians saying that they will switch off lifesaving machines for undocumented migrants, which is unacceptable. If these politicians start talking about migration being out of control,. She says someone in the DA was talking about this country being 'free for all', insinuating some sense of lawlessness or lack of rule of law. Politicians are also talking about the asylum-seeking system being a de facto permit for economic migrants. This kind of talk feeds into the narrative of bogus asylum seekers.
RISE Mzansi Party’s premier female candidate, Nonkululeko Hlongwane-Mhlongo, says that the plight of single mothers would be at the top of the list of priorities. She says that her government would also prioritise creating safe communities for single mothers and their children.
She is promising to make sure that early childhood development centers will receive financial support from the government, open between 6am and 6 p.m. They are also talking about providing single mothers with discounts for basic household food items such as maize meal, beans, etc.
She is currently studying at Unisa. She is taking political leadership studies. She described herself as a community engagement strategist. She founded the Female President Academy. This is a non-profit organisation empowering women by promoting peace through civic education.
Israel’s military is now ‘asking’ Palestinians in the east of Rafah in Gaza to evacuate the area. They are describing the situation as an operation of limited scope. They have already killed 22 people in the area, and these include eight children. Since last year they have killed over 34 000 people and over 1 million people have been displaced. Newzroom Afrika spoke to the University of Johannesburg’s Professor of Politics, Dr Siphamandla Zondi
Zondi says that they know that violent states first have to call you a bad name and then kill you. Even genocides are done that way. For example, in Rwanda, they first called the people that they were killing rats. So that when they kill them, it does not look like they are killing human beings. They are killing 'things'.
He says that they have always known that the psychology of genocide is that you first dehumanise a person from a normal human being, to something below human being. This creates a space free from any moral implication, and there is no conscience implication for killing 'IT' because it is an 'IT' as opposed to killing him/her, a human being.
He says that mediation only works when the two parties involved in the conflict feel like the conflict is harming them, and resolution is the ideal option. Unfortunately, no amount of intervention will succeed.
Israel is going to cement their political power by ensuring that these areas where people have been forcefully removed and all the places that have been bombed, like they have been told in Rafah to move away from danger, will become theirs. Zondi says that moving away from 'danger' means that they will never come back to where they used to be. He says that that place will be converted into a Jewish settlement. To grow their base of Jewish settlers, who feel the need to settle in places where they displace the Palestinians.
