The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has promised not to give up on finding a solution to the eThekwini water crisis until all areas have running water.
The SAHRC said this after receiving a memorandum from the Democratic Alliance (DA) KZN provincial leader Francois Rodgers during a picket at the SAHRC Durban offices on Friday.
The party said it is concerned over the SAHRC’s “non-response” to issues affecting eThekwini residents.
Since the floods in 2022, the water situation in the eThekwini Municipality, particularly in the North of Durban encompassing Phoenix, Tongaat, Durban North, Greenwood Park, Glenashley, Virginia, Sunningdale and Umhlanga has become progressively worse.
According to the memorandum the residents of Bester have been without water for 14 years. Rodgers said that the community of Tongaat have now been without water for 90 days and counting.
In Phoenix, water outages happen on a daily basis. In Durban North and Umhlanga, they were left without water for eight days towards the end of 2023.
“Our communities bear the brunt of these continued outages with no explanation from the eThekwini Municipality and almost no solutions to the problem,” he said.
Rodgers said in the Bill of Rights under Section 27, all South Africans are guaranteed access to water as well as the “progressive realisation of each of these rights”.
“It is blatantly obvious then that eThekwini Municipality is guilty of gross human rights violations for their failure to provide water to residents.”
“We need the SA Human Rights Commission to come on board,” he said.
The DA called on the SAHRC to continually engage with city officials and the members of the executive committee to determine who is at fault for the collapse of water services in the city.
Noting that such meetings have previously taken place, we request information as to the deadline by when the Mayor’s office is to receive the report from the city manager on concerns raised by the commission.
“We call on the SAHRC to further engage with city officials and members of the executive committee as to why the water tanker services are unable to address the supply of water during prolonged water outages.”
The DA also wants the SAHRC to engage the national Department of Water together with the minister to determine what, if any, action is being taken to normalise the supply of water.
SAHRC provincial manager Pavershree Padayachee said water challenges throughout the province remain a systemic human rights violation.
“The commission has already been engaging with all the affected parties, stakeholders and municipality prior to the complaint received from the DA.
“Many of the initiatives that the DA would like to see implemented, the commission has already started to implement and they are currently under way, so the feedback on the progress will be communicated,” she said.
Padayachee said the commission was committed to upholding and protecting these basic human rights and will continue to engage with the relevant authorities until an amicable resolution was reached.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu will meet with residents from affected areas tomorrow to provide updates on measures aimed at resolving the challenges.
Mchunu, together with the mayor of eThekwini, Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda, will address residents of Verulam, Phoenix and Tongaat, and provide a progress report on measures to restore water supply.
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