DA reports City of Johannesburg to HRC for rights violations

22 March 2016

The DA has today compiled a complaint to the Human Rights Commission over the City of Johannesburg’s repeated violation of residents’ human rights. This complaint will be filed without delay.

We are doing this to hold the government of Johannesburg to account for neglect of our citizens.

The most powerful way for people to change their circumstances is through voting for change, and voting in a new government. The people of Johannesburg can vote for change in this year's election.

But until this change-election of 2016, the ANC government of Johannesburg cannot be allowed to continue violating human rights without scrutiny.

To date I have personally experienced violations as follows, which form the basis of our complaint to the SAHRC:

- In Zandspruit people have no access to emergency services, and have to live without sewage infrastructure and without legal electrical connections while relying on standpipes or grey water. Children play close to dead rodents that are not cleaned away by City health and sanitation.

- In Noordgesig people live close to a mine dump which is cause for major environmental and health problems. Many residents suffer from chest complaints and there is a high rate of tuberculosis in the area.

- Alexandra has informal housing units scattered between formal housing without access to any services, resulting in sewage flows between units.

- The Madala Men’s Hostel in Alexandra is an unsound structure that has not been maintained and unfit for human occupation. Part of the roof has been destroyed leaving residents exposed to the elements. Access to water is sporadic and the sewage system is blocked, leading to severe health concerns.

- At the Melrose Street informal settlement in City & Suburban about 150 people share a few portable toilets that are filthy and are not emptied regularly. There is a single tap to service the settlement, while storm water drains are blocked and the municipality does not clear them.

- In Diepsloot people are profoundly affected by crime and violence. There is raw effluent in the streets, since no sanitation service is offered. Children cross flowing sewage to play, and to get around their neighbourhood. Recently a young child drowned because there is no bridge for residents to cross the river when it rains.

- In Kwa Mai-Mai thousands of families live in squalid conditions in a run-down building next to the Kwa Mai-Mai market. Only one toilet, erected by inhabitants, services the entire community. There is no sanitation and no refuse removal, garbage lies knee-deep and sewage runs in the alleys like a grey river.

- Helen Joseph Hostel for Women in Alexandra is home to thousands of women, but has a serious sanitation problem: pipes are blocked and the communal bathrooms are flooded and the ablution facilities are blocked. There is no piped water for residents, and water has to be collected at a central point.

- Kliptown’s residents live in old houses that are crumbling and are forced to share central portable toilets. Rats are fearless of humans because of the unsanitary conditions and are everywhere.

It cannot be that these living conditions can go unpunished at the hands of Mayor Parks Tau and the ANC.

A DA government in Johannesburg will deliver functioning sewerage infrastructure, running water and electricity, and spend more and more public money on upgrading our poorest communities.

From Cape Town to Midvaal where the DA governs, living conditions improve.

The DA will deliver change to Johannesburg that sees the highest levels of water, sanitation and electricity access, just as we have done where the DA governs already.

Change is coming to Johannesburg; change that delivers services for all residents.

Issued by Herman Mashaba, DA Mayoral Candidate for Johannesburg, 22 March 2016