DA to deliver Memorandum of Demands as KZN SAHRC fails to step up over Human Rights crises
26 October 2022
The DA will deliver a Memorandum of Demands to the KZN South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) following the organisations failure to act over the ongoing suffering of KZN’s flood victims and the severe water and sanitation crisis facing the province.
The handover will take place in the form of a picket outside the SAHRC offices in Durban on Monday 31 October.
The move comes after what the DA believes to be a failure by the Commission to intervene while thousands of flood victims are still living under inhumane conditions in community halls six months after the natural disaster. To make matters worse, these vulnerable citizens appear to have been completely forgotten by both the national and provincial governments.
This issue has now become a human rights crisis yet the SAHRC is nowhere to be found. To make matters worse, the Commission has also disregarded the DA’s numerous attempts to engage directly on the issue;
- On 27 July, DA KZN Provincial and Legislature Leader, Francois Rodgers, lodged a formal complaint with the SAHRC with a request that living conditions at the halls be urgently investigated
- On 1 August the DA received a reply from the SAHRC acknowledging our email
- Two months later, after failing to hear anything more, the DA requested an update. Two days later we received an email from the SAHRC with a request for information, which not only had we already provided but was already widely-publicized in the media
- On 4 October the DA sent a follow-up request for an in-person meeting with KZN SAHRC officials. After failing to receive a reply, on 11 October the DA sent a follow-up request for a meeting
- On 12 October the SAHRC responded indicating that they were not available to meet on 17 October as requested. No alternative date was offered and the SAHRC demanded to know the purpose and agenda for any meeting. The SAHRC then requested that the DA again register their complaint submitted in July and;
- Once again, on 14 October the DA again requested to meet with the SAHRC. To date we have had no reply.
The questions that demand answers are: Why is the SAHRC repeatedly snubbing the DA? And why is it not doing its job of holding this government to account?
Regrettably, the SAHRC’s stance towards the DA has been similar when it comes to KZN’s ongoing water and sanitation crisis - in particular the collapse of related infrastructure in eThekwini. Initially, the DA faced challenges in being part of SAHRC public hearings on the matter in August as a result of a lack of information being forthcoming from the Commission.
DA KZN Cogta Spokesperson, Martin Meyer, was finally able to make representations on 18 August. Yet the SAHRC report to national parliament’s Ad Hoc committee on 12 September did not mention the issues raised by the DA.
This omission was raised by DA MP, Tim Brauteseth during a National Assembly questions session, with the Commissioner assuring him that it would be looked into. To date there has been no feedback on the matter.
The very purpose of the Commission is to protect the human rights of the people. The fact that it is doing everything in its power not to work with and engage with the DA on two such serious humanitarian issues points to the capture of this organisation.
KZN’s people can no longer be left to suffer. As a result of the lack of urgency that exists, the DA has no option but to take its grievances to the SAHRC. As the province’s only real opposition we will ensure that KZN’s people are heard.
Issued by Francois Rodgers, Leader of the DA in the KZN Legislature/DA KZN Provincial Leader, 26 October 2022
