Note to Broadcasters: Find linked soundbites in English and Sesotho by Freddy Sonakile MPL.
The DA has laid several complaints with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) against the ANC-led Mahikeng and Ratlou Local Municipalities over the persistent human rights violations of residents due to collapsed service delivery.
We made the announcement yesterday during a Human Rights Day event in Mahikeng, where we committed to the communities of Ratlou and Mahikeng that we will make sure that the ANC-led government is held accountable for their failures.
In Louisdal and Mooipan, Mahikeng, 29 incomplete RDP homes remain scattered throughout surrounding villages. See images here, here, and here.
These houses have been incomplete for over 10 years, yet the government has already registered beneficiaries meant to occupy the homes. Over a decade later, the structures are on the brink of collapse, with no plan from the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements, and Traditional Affairs on how they intend to rectify this violation. Yet 29 families remain without decent homes.
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Residents around Bophelong Hospital are living in filth due to Mahikeng Local Municipality and the Department of Health’s ineptitude. Raw sewage leaking from the Waste Water Treatment plant situated within the hospital grounds flows into neighbouring homes. This has been ongoing for over a year now. See images here, here, and here.
A dumping site a stone’s throw away from the Bophelong Hospital does not adhere to the basic norms and standards. The dumping site is built next to a hospital, not only creating a health hazard to the families residing next to the hospital but to patients as well. See images here.
In Matloding village in Ratlou, residents still live in mud houses, a grave human rights violation by the ANC-led government, despite having been registered with the municipality for indigency support. Residents of Mathateng are also suffering the same fate, having lived in Ratlou for over a decade without any basic services like clean water supply, electricity, and maintained roads. See images here, here, and here.
DA Councillors in service of residents in these affected wards, have lodged complaints with the SAHRC for these brazen human rights violations, along with a long list of others. We cannot continue celebrating Human Rights Day while residents continue to have their rights violated without any remorse by the ANC-led government, at local and provincial levels.
We will be monitoring these investigations closely and urge the SAHRC to act with speed to force the municipalities and provincial government to remedy these violations.