The South African Human Rights Commission has completed its investigations into water and sanitation situation in five (5) Municipalities in the Free State Province. Reports with the findings and recommendations for all these five municipalities have been completed and will be released next week, Wednesday 10 July 2013 in Bloemfontein.
SAHRC invites members of the media to the launch of these reports.
The Commission is conducting investigations around water and sanitation across the country in all the nine (9) provinces. In the Free State, the Democratic Alliance is the complainant in one of the five complaints.
The Commission’s five reports deal with complaints received in Dihlabeng Local Municipality, Setsotso Local Municipality, Metsimetsi Local Municipality, Masilonyana Local Municipality and Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality.
Further to these water and sanitation investigations in the Free state, the Commission is also monitoring the status of water and sanitation in Moqhaka Municipality where complaints of water and sanitation was received.
The Commission is also investigating complaints in other provinces. In the Eastern Cape the Commission is dealing with water and sanitation-related complaints around lack of access to water as well as a lack of access to sanitation. The latter complaint alleges that raw sewerage is spewing out onto the streets of Mthata.
In Mpumalanga, the Commission is dealing with approximately eleven complains relating to a lack of access to water and sanitation in various districts. In Limpopo we are investigating eleven such complaints.
In the Western Cape, the Commission has received complaints from political parties and from community based organizations as well as NGO’s such as the Social Justice Coalition. It has recently undertaken an investigation based on complaints from communities in informal settlements in Gugulethu, who alleges that they have not received sanitation services since April this year.
Today, the Commission is in Khayelitsha to look at these and other socio-economic issues. These are all ongoing investigations that the Commission is treating with the necessary urgency.
Contact:
Isaac Mangena
Head: SAHRC Communications
Cell: 071 884 8273
Email: info@sahrc.org.za
