24 November 2014

By Deputy Chairperson Pregs Govender, Commissioner responsible for Basic Services & Health Care

From high-profile cases to cases that never make the headlines, it is clear that there is no ceasefire of the war in homes, neighborhoods and workplaces. Patriarchs, from pulpits and podiums, attack the dignity of people who do not conform to militarized masculinity and submissive femininity. Every day we hear of misogynistic attacks on babies, children, heterosexual and lesbian women and people who are gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex.

28 August 2014

Video presentation by Deputy Chairperson Pregs Govender, Commissioner responsible for Basic Services & Health Care

At the recent meeting between State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy and Parliamentary Committees MPs weighed in on ‘this independence thing’ of Chapter Nine Institutions. One MP asserted that there must be ‘one country, one voice!’ Instead of being vigorously challenged, she was supported by other MPs opposed to Chapter Nine Institutions criticising Government.

29 May 2014

By Commissioner Mokate, SAHRC Commissioner responsible for Children and Basic education

Despite having been abolished for 18 years, corporal punishment in schools continues with alarming frequency with the General Household Surveys 2012, indicating that some 2.2 million children were made subject to the practise in this year. Of late, the SAHRC has noted a considerable rise of incidence of corporal punishment in schools.

24 March 2014

By Minister Connie September, Minister of Human Settlements

Positive results will soon be felt by the people whose dignity has been assaulted by the bucket toilet system, says Human Settlements Minister Connie September.

09 August 2015

By Deputy Chairperson Pregs Govender, SAHRC Commissioner responsible for Basic Services & Health Care

Dignity is the inherent worth and value of every human being. Humanity’s birthright was silenced by apartheid’s capitalist and patriarchal paradigm, which devalued, fragmented and destroyed human beings.

The earth, air and water that sustain life became commodities to exploit for profit.

10 March 2016

By Chairperson Lourence Mushwana, Commissioner responsible for Migration & Equality

It is not a co-incidence that the South African Human Rights Commission decided to launch the Right to Food which on a day prior to the Human Rights Day in South Africa.

There must be a particular reason for the Constitutional imperative which states that ‘everyone has the right to adequate food and water’

02 March 2014

By Deputy Chairperson Pregs Govender, Commissioner responsible for Basic Services & Health Care

Hartbeespoort, Rooikoppies, Vaalkop and Klipvoor Dams are located in the Madibeng Municipality. Four dams...that should be more than enough water for everyone, to drink, wash and wallow in on scorching summer days in the North-West Province. The world’s third largest chrome producer and the richest Platinum Group Metals Reserve are in Madibeng. During Apartheid and Democracy the wealthy owners of the mines, tourist companies, agribusiness and other large industries did not experience water shortages or water cuts. Yet communities who are Black and poor, living next to the dams complained to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) that they went without water for days, weeks and months.

12 November 2015

By Deputy Chairperson Pregs Govender, Commissioner responsible for Basic Services & Health Care

On International Rural Women’s Day this week, over 250 rural women from across our country marched to Parliament. Their pamphlets and green t-shirts (over colourful traditional clothes) were imprinted with an image of a joyous woman. Hands encircling the earth, fingertips enfolding Africa, she proclaims:  “Women – guardians of seed, life and earth”.

26 April 2013

By Chairperson Lourence Mushwana, Commissioner responsible for Migration & Equality 

The South African Human Rights Commission is honoured that the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions and the Association for the Prevention of Torture chose it to host vital training in investigating allegations of torture.

It could not come at a more crucial time. As a country, we are experiencing torture, ill-treatment and police brutality of a magnitude we have not experienced since we became a democracy.

20 March 2013

By Deputy Chairperson Pregs Govender, SAHRC Deputy Chairperson responsible for Basic Services & Health Care
 
There are good people across our society, in Government and in civil society, who are deeply committed to our Constitution. They work hard and are committed to changing the reality of unemployment, poverty, inequality and violence. The biggest obstacle they identify is the lack of planning, the silo-mentality, the territorialism and egoism. These factors hinder co-ordination and co-operation within and between departments and spheres of Government. It has negative impact on policy and budget development, preventing the implementation of policies that could shift this reality. The result is a widespread perception that Government does not care.