[okfn-za] Ideas for an initial group project - input wanted!

[Nonceba Mtwana]

Hello All

The Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative (CSPRI) based at the UWC law might be a good start for data on minors in prison.

Nonceba

From: okfn-za-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:okfn-za-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Adi Eyal
Sent: 11 February 2013 02:55 PM
To: Rufus Pollock
Cc: okfn-za at lists.okfn.org; Steve Song
Subject: Re: [okfn-za] Ideas for an initial group project - input wanted!

Hi All

1) pulling stats together for minors in prison: what was bail, how
> long has he/she been in there, how many times has court been postponed
> due to "lost" docket or absent key person

Any idea where we could find the data? Is it all paper or is it
electronic? Does the government make it available. Could we focus on a
specific locality to start with?

I've poked around quickly online but the only database on verdicts that I have found is for High Courts and the Supreme Court - but nothing obviously interesting. We would need someone with more intimate knowledge of where this data could be found.

> 3) degrees of separation mind-mappish type thingy for 500 most
> influential South Africans.
> Type in two names, and thingy finds the shortest routes between the
> two people (boards of directors, relatives, education, political
> events, tenders).
> Not "quite simple" as you requested but would be fascinating.

So we need the SA companies register including directors. theyrule for
South Africa [1]. Is the Companies Register available in machine
readable format

The companies register is pathetic. It only provides the name and registration number of the company. There is a cost to finding out who the directors are. This is a prime target for a FOI application - although it's unlikely to be successful without costly litigation.


> 6) national map of police station location juxtap with population
> I have in mind the Hout Bay police station for 20,000 people vs the
> eastern Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve police station for 20 people, 1/4
> of whom work in the station.

Again, very nice. Where

This is easy enough

police stations can be found on the SAPS site - http://www.saps.gov.za/statistics/reports/crimestats/2012/provinces/w_cape/western_cape.htm

they aren't geocoded but you could probably find their coordinates in the OpenStreetMaps POI database.

The police aren't keen on providing shape files demarcating police jurisdictions (I've tried) so we would have to use a heuristic to figure out which areas are policed by which stations.

Finally, population data is available from StatsSA. As yet, they haven't released sub-place level information (e.g. Hout Bay). Only municipal level data is currently available. They're promising sub-place level information in March but I'm not holding my breath given the census fiasco. We can use the 2001 census as a proxy until the 2011 data becomes available.

Adi


> Kind regards,
> Louisa

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--
Adi Eyal
Data Specialist
phone: +27 78 014 2469
skype: adieyalcas
linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
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