Andy Duffy
A funding crisis has virtually paralysed the South African Human Rights Commission just six months after it was launched.
The commission, set up to police the Bill of Rights, began swinging the axe earlier this week after failing to secure an increase in its R6,4-million budget, which is a third of what it estimates it needs.
The commission has costed its operations – which include establishing provincial offices, a public education drive and legal fees – at R18-million for the first year.
The budget for education and legal fees is to be cut to R2-million from a planned R6,8- million. Only R230 000 has been set aside to cover legal and mediation costs – expenditure previously put at R1,5-million.
Chief executive officer Louisa Zondo says the cuts could jeopardise the commission’s main programmes.
Officials have, however, kept the salary bill at R4,5-million to cover 70 staffers, although so far only 22 have been recruited. Its five full-time commissioners receive packages worth a total R1-million a year. Vacancies include staff to register complaints. More than 400 complaints have come in since the commission’s launch – just 20 are being investigated.
“Management is here but operations are not possible,” Zondo says. “You can’t even get a letter on time.
“The commission may be concerned that government may not be attaching the required importance to building a culture of human rights. But it understands there is a limit to funds at the state’s disposal.”
The commission, chaired by Barney Pityana, was set up last year, and formally launched in March. It has spent much of its time introducing its activities to provincial government officials, and has also instituted several high-profile investigations.
Officials from state expenditure and the Department of Justice audited the commission’s budget proposal last week following a request from the Treasury Select Committee.
The department declined to comment on the findings, although deputy director general Japie Jacobs says it is “definitely not true that state expenditure does not take human rights seriously. There are just too many holes to be blocked -the commission will just have to stand in line like everyone else.”