1 September 2006
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is concerned that, at the
height of the countryâs transition to democracy, Equality Courts in the Free
State were under-utilised or not operational at all. The SAHRC delegation
visiting the province was informed when they visited courts in different areas
of the province today.
The delegation was led by the Chairperson of the Commission, Jody Kollapen
and the CEO, Adv Tseliso Thipanyane. They visited the Equality Court Magistrate
for the Bloemfontein and Botshabelo areas. It transpired that the Bloemfontein
Magistrate's Court had registered eight equality cases and no cases were
registered in Botshabelo in the last year. The SAHRC is concerned at the
under-utilisation of the equality courts as they were set up to deal with
unfair discrimination on prohibited grounds.
This under-utilisation may be due to a lack of awareness of the equality
courts and the remedies that they could provide in the event of unfair
discrimination on the prohibited grounds.
Special Equality Courts have been established since 2003 to combat racism
and reverse the effects of apartheid and injustices of the past. Judges and
magistrates, across the country, have received the necessary training to
enforce the provisions of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair
Discrimination Act of 2000.
As a result the SAHRC delegation met with court representatives and managers
to come up with vigorous ways of raising public awareness and getting the
equality courts to run effectively.
The delegation also met with key people in the province, where multi-pronged
partnerships were established, to jointly run awareness programmes on different
human rights related issues. Both the House of Traditional Leaders and the
South African Council of Churches have undertaken, in principle, to assist in
future outreach programmes and in taking or referring complaints to the SAHRC.
The Free State Legislature, in conjunction with local municipalities, will
involve the SAHRC in their public participation programmes dealing with service
delivery.
Other visits included the Department of Social Security, Agric Free State,
Society of Advocates of the Free State, Law Society, Free State Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, municipality and schools. All these institutions
undertook to work with the SAHRC in promoting the respect for the observance of
human rights in the province. The SAHRC hopes that partnerships with these
institutions will result in providing more effective delivery of services to
the people of the province.
The exercise is the SAHRC's strategic way of taking human rights issues to
the people and ensuring access to human rights for all.
Enquires:
Phillipine Masemola
Tel: (011) 484 8300
Fax: (011) 484 7149
E-mail: pmasemola@sahrc.org.za
Issued by: South African Human Rights Commission
1 September 2006
