Rhoda Kadalie
A SECOND LOOK
I call on the editors of the selected media to defy the subpoenas served on them by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) en bloc. By appearing before the HRC, they will give credence to a discredited organisation that has failed to carry out its mandate effectively since its inception in 1995.
Not only has the commission failed, on occasion, to deal with the many and varied cases of blatant racial discrimination brought to its attention daily, but it is also too under-qualified to deal with the complex problem of subliminal racism (whatever that might mean). This is exemplified by the fact that it has actually taken Claudia Braude’s ludicrous report seriously, and worse still, it is acting upon it.
As the self-appointed “thought police” of the new South Africa, the commission has failed in its role as the protector of the values enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
These subpoenas are nothing but a gross violation of freedom of expression and an attempt to prescribe to the press what they should be thinking and writing. Where are the voices of academics, NGOs and civil society in condemning the erosion of civil liberties by an institution that should be robust in defending them?
The public has a moral duty to be vigilant of these watchdog institutions as they cannot be entrusted to be the gatekeepers of the fundamental rights of all South Africans.
Nobody is denying that racism exists and that it rears its head in the media in various ways. In fact, it exists in the very “holier-than-thou commission” itself.
Is it not ironic that the five commissioners who left the HRC are non- African? Has Helen Suzman not been called a racist umpteen times while serving on the commission for daring to question the expenditures? Is this obsession with race not perhaps a ploy to divert attention from its own inefficacy in dealing with the myriad of human rights violations that occur on a daily basis in our country? Should we as taxpayers not insist that it attend to many of the other rights that also exist in the Bill of Rights? What about administration of justice rights with regard to pension and maintenance pay-outs, the rights of the elderly, the occurrence of deaths in custody, the violations of the rights of refugees and immigrants, and the violations of children’s rights, to name but a few?
Why doesn’t it more effectively monitor the implementation of socio-economic rights and ensure that government departments prioritise these rights by the efficient delivery of services to the poor, in particular?
Instead, the commission dabbles with witch-hunts in its desperation to foist its dwindling power on an unsuspecting public. If the commission wants the respect of the public then it should be beyond reproach itself and rid itself of the mediocrity and lack of professionalism that have characterised its deliberations thus far.
How many cases investigated by my office reached finality because the HRC was too disorganised to take these cases forward? How many of the public hearings conducted by the commission produced any results? The list of incomplete tasks is endless and should remind the HRC to get its own house in order first.
The heavy-handed tactics of the HRC is an apt demonstration that when search and seizure powers, as enshrined in the Human Rights Commission Act, are conferred upon incompetent and beleaguered individuals, the consequences might be too ghastly to contemplate!
Rhoda Kadalie is a former member of the Human Rights Commission