16 April 2019
Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) will hold public meetings in Rus-ter-vaal and Ramaphosaville Informal Settlement tomorrow. This follows the deaths of two people on 10 April 2019 when Red Ants Security was called upon to perform an eviction in the area on behalf of the Emfuleni Local Municipality.

15 April 2019
Attention: Editors and Reporters

In March 2019, the South African Human Rights Commission (“the Commission”) became aware, through various social media platforms, of a widely circulated audio recording concerning a meeting held by MEC Faith Mazibuko with her senior Managers in which she was heard saying the following “I empower you, you are not empowerable. Which other department has an Indian that is a CFO? Which department has an HOD that is a ‘mlungu’? Ayikho [there is none], including national.”

11 April 2019
Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) will visit Rustervaal Informal Settlement today after a resident allegedly died after he was shot with rubber bullets and a member of the Red Ants member was apparently beaten to death by angry mobs.

Date: Wednesday, 10 April 2019    
For immediate release
Attention: Editors/ News desks


The Public Protector and the Human Rights Commission (the Commission) are to combine efforts in a bid to get to the bottom of service delivery complaints that have given rise to recent violent protests in Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg.

10 April 2019

Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South Africa Human Rights Commission has invited the Municipal Manager of the Rand West City Local Municipality to appear before it on Thursday, 11 April 2019, as it continues with its investigations into allegations of raw sewage flowing from the municipality’s Sewage Processing Plant into the Tweelopiespruit & Hartbeespoort.

09 April 2019
Attention: Editors and Reporters

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) will visit the Sibanye Gold, Driefontein Division, in Carltonville tomorrow to get a first-hand experience of the situation on the ground. This visit follows reports of a four-and-half month long strike at three of Sibanye Gold mines, in which nine people have been killed so far.

28 March 2019

The United Nations has dedicated the 22rd of March as World Water Day, in efforts to raise awareness about this vital resource and to encourage commitments by States that in the quest for water, no one should be left behind. January 2019 marked five years after the tragic death of Michael Komape, a 5 year old boy who helplessly drowned in excrement after falling into a pit latrine in 2014. The incident was sadly not the first to occupy prominent headlines exposing the shockingly unacceptable state of school infrastructure in South Africa.

28 March 2019

The post-apartheid South African society as per section 1 of the 1996 Constitution is founded on values of equality, the advancement of human rights and non-racialism amongst others. Despite many measures, initiatives and efforts, including the enactment of laws, policies and establishment of institutions such as the South African Human Rights Commission; to build a South Africa where all those who live in it, black and white, equally belong; the challenge of racism and its polarizing effects still persist in our beloved country.

08 April 2019

South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC or the Commission) is deeply concerned about the reports of several burglaries, and vandalism of school premises over the last week at the Reuben Birin Special School for the Hearing Impaired in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape.
The vandalism of this school impacts negatively on the realisation of the right to access basic education for 140 children with disabilities. The right to education is a fundamental right protected by section 29 of the South African Constitution. Accordingly, fundamental human rights cannot be denied to anyone, regardless of their disability. Furthermore, as all human rights are indivisible, interrelated, and interdependent; such occurrences are inextricably tied to violations of other basic rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, including the right to an environment that is not harmful to health and well-being.

Attention: Editors and Reporters
Date: 03 April 2019

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) will conduct a site inspection of the Sebokeng and Rietspruit Waste Water Treatment Plant in the Emfuleni Local Municipality. The inspection seeks to gauge progress made since the deployment of the army to address the crisis.