The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has expressed concern over the human rights status of the Free State after a three-day visit to the province that ended on Friday.
”What we found is quite worrying in many aspects,” said Tseliso Thipanyane, CEO of the commission.
All the SAHRC commissioners visited the Free State during the three-day excursion and met groups and people at all levels of society.
Thipanyane said one of the issues that caught the commission’s attention was the economic exploitation of farm workers in terms of what they were allegedly being paid by employers.
”Other reports we have received include one about someone’s lion which broke a fence and chewed a farm worker’s cow, without compensation.
”We came across reports of people being assaulted and dismissed [from farms] without any due process whatsoever,” he said.
The commissioners also visited farm schools in the Clocolan area.
Thipanyane said they interviewed pupils who had to walk about 20km a day to attend school, and others who had to go to a nearby stream in order to drink water during school hours.
Commissioner Zonke Majodina, deputy chairperson of the commission, agreed that the plight of these children needs to be addressed.
”The commission has undertaken to be part of more programmes and to reach out more. The greatest human rights violations occur on these farms,” she said.
Majodina was taken aback by the living conditions of rural people. ”People seem to have missed the boat in terms of the events of 1994, where we went today [Friday]. It was almost as if the events of 1994 had never happened. We will have to use our mandate much more vigorously.”
Thipanyane agreed and said there is ”definitely” serious concern about the state of human rights in many parts of the province. ”We, as a commission, together with the relevant stakeholders, have to address this as a matter of urgency.”
He said the commission has decided to take much stronger action against any proven allegation of human rights abuses, especially within the farming community.
Commissioner Karthy Govender said the SAHRC will look at all the allegations received during the visit and investigate them thoroughly.
”If we believe that they disclose evidence of human rights violations, then we’re going to take them up. This would include bringing interdicts against persons, requesting information from government, [and] putting government on terms of realising certain social-economic rights, and might include civil actions.”
Govender said the commission wants to use the courts and the legal system ”fairly assertively” in some matters.
It is expected that similar visits will be made in other provinces in future. — Sapa