Khulumani appeals to the Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Executions to take urgent action in respect of the findings that some 14 mineworkers were allegedly executed at close range by South African Police Services officers 'Small Koppies' site near the Marikana Lonmin Mine site. This area was some 400 metres from Wonderkop where mineworkers had gathered over several days. The alleged summary execution of these mineworkers took place on 16 August 2012.

On 2 September 2012, Khulumani Support Group, submitted an urgent appeal to the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Professor Christof Heyns, to conduct an independent assessment of whether some of the killings of the Marikana mineworkers on 16 August 2012 could be viewed as meeting the criteria for extrajudicial killings.

The decision to lodge this urgent appeal followed the emergence of evidence suggesting that some of the miners from the Lonmin Platinum Mine who lost their lives at Marikana in North West Province, appear to have been shot at close range in an area known as ‘Small Koppies’, while trying to escape from police shootings.

It is with utmost sadness that Khulumani Support Group learns about the untimely passing of Maureen Mazibuko, a founding member of Khulumani Support Group- Western Cape.

It is with great sadness that Khulumani learned of the passing on of Prince Zwelithini Johannes Mfolozi. As you gather to bury a loved member of your family and community, our love and prayers will be with you on this  very sad day. We remember and we salute one of us who used each moment of his day in working to bring constructive change to the lives of members of his community.

Prince Mfolozi was a participant in Khulumani’s capacity building for civic competence training held at Hogsback in the Eastern Cape between 21 and 24 November 2012. He was so excited about what he had learned and went out from the workshop to share what he had gained in outreach across the O R Tambo District.

Khulumani Support Group thanks Ms Nthabiseng Faku-Juqula, a post graduate student at Brunel University for her continuing engagement with and support of Khulumani's work in facilitating that justice is secured for victims and survivors of apartheid crimes.

Khulumani expresses its appreciation for the work that Mouhamadou Diol is doing in driving forward the work we do through Forum Theatre as a developmental tool for the Victim Empowerment Program. For the last two months, Diol has been working intensively with a group of 25 young people from Soweto. The group, known as Khulumani Forum Theatre Group have developed skills in leadership, group dynamics, as well as artistic skills such as stage craft, acting, script writing, production and direction.

Tomorrow, June 26, 2012 will mark twenty-five years sine the entry into force of the Convention Against Torture. The day is remembered each year as International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

June 20 was World Refugee Day. The situation of refugees and asylum-seekers in South Africa has been rendered even more difficult with the closure of the Refugee Reception Centres at Crown Mines, Johannesburg and at Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Further closures have been threatened.

Court orders requiring the re-opening of the centres in Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth have been ignored. The Department of Home Affairs stands guilty of a contempt of court.

Khulumani joins Lawyers for Human Rights and the member organisations of CoRMSA, the Consortium on Refugees and Migrants in South Africa, in their call on the South African state to provide effective and real protection to refugees and asylum-seekers in South Africa.

Information from a Jacana Media Press Release, 31 May 2012.

This year James Kilgore returns to South Africa to launch his book entitled Freedom Never Rests.