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PRESS STATEMENT
For Immediate Release
People’s Hearing Spotlights Harassment and Attacks on Human Rights Defenders across South Africa.
22 October 2025 | Women’s Jail, Constitution Hill | Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa. Human rights defenders from across the country face mounting threats, harassment, and violence for protecting their communities, the environment, and the rule of law.
Over the past four years, the Life after Coal (LAC) campaign, a coalition of Earthlife Africa, groundWork and Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), has held annual events highlighting the work and the dangers facing South Africa’s human rights defenders, under the Defend Our Defenders campaign, with over 80 civil society and community organisations supporting our demands.
This year, on the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Fikile Ntshangase, LAC will host the People’s Hearing for Human Rights Defenders on 22 October 2025 at the Women’s Jail, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, to provide a platform for community leaders and activists to share testimony on their lived experiences and expose the growing climate of violence they face when they stand up to mining corporations and state interests that violate their rights.
The Defend Our Defenders campaign has previously submitted memoranda of their demands to the ministries of Police, Justice and the Presidency, but have received no substantive responses from any of these bodies with no progress made in the cases of murdered activists, and the impunity of corporations prevails.
“South Africa’s defenders courageously stand up for justice, but they do so without meaningful protection from the state,” said Sifiso Dladla groundWork HRD Campaigner, speaking on behalf of the Life After Coal campaign. “This People’s Hearing will bear witness to the struggles of environmental justice campaigners and human rights defenders, amplifying their voices, while demanding accountability from those who enable or perpetrate attacks.”
“We cannot build a just transition, with a sustainable future while silencing those who speak truth to power,” said Themba Khumalo of Sukumani Environmental Justice (SEJ). “We hope this public hearing will not only hear stories but expose abuses and injustice to human rights defenders. It is time to act for justice for Human Rights Defenders.”
The People’s Hearing comes at a time when South Africa is witnessing growing resistance to environmental destruction, extractivism, corporate impunity, corruption, and equally growing hostility toward those who defend their communities and ecosystems that support their livelihoods.
The community formations that will give testimony at the People’s Hearing are the Melmoth Community, Amadiba Crisis Committee , Abahlali baseMjondolo,, Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation (MCEJO) and Sukumani Environmental Justice (SEJ).
- The Melmoth Community from KwaZulu-Natal is a grassroots coalition resisting mining and land dispossession. Members face severe threats, rights violations, and unresolved activist murders, which forced a community leader into hiding for over ten years.
- Amadiba Crisis Committee from Xolobeni in the Eastern Cape is a grassroots movement opposing titanium mining and championing community rights. They confront activist criminalisation, unresolved killings, and exclusion from economic and decision-making processes.
- Abahlali baseMjondolo, is national grassroots movement of shack dwellers that has been fighting for land, housing and dignity for the urban poor over the past 20 years. They face violent repression, political assassinations, and systemic denial of rights in their struggle for justice.
- Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation (MCEJO) from KwaZulu-Natal, is a community alliance near Somkhele coal mine defending environmental and human rights. They face threats, violence, and pollution, with weak legal protection and contested mining expansion.
- Sukumani Environmental Justice (SEJ) from Newcastle and Dannhauser in KwaZulu-Natal is a grassroots group defending their rights from destructive coal mining impacts. They face pollution, exclusion from decision-making, and threats on activists’ lives that have forced a community leader into hiding.
Press Pack
Event Details
What: People’s Hearing for Human Rights Defenders
Date: 22 October 2025
Time: 09:00 – 18:00
Venue: Women’s Jail, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg
For Media Enquiries
Tsepang Molefe – groundWork Media Campaigner
+27744051257
or
Jabulani Sithole – Life After Coal – Communications Coordinator
+27660835270
