There’s an idiom that says that when you point a finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you.
This came to mind when the DA, led by KwaZulu-Natal leader Francois Rodgers, MPL, DA KZN chairperson Dean McPherson, and DA eThekwini caucus leader, councillor Thabani Mthethwa, held a picket at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) offices in Durban on Monday over the inhumane conditions suffered by thousands of flood victims at eThekwini community halls.
The April floods claimed 450 lives, robbed several thousand people of their homes — particularly those living in informal settlements near flood plains — and resulted in billions in damage to infrastructure.
The DA handed over a memorandum to the country’s human rights watchdog, which they say has snubbed the party’s attempts to engage with them on this matter. Their document relates to inhumane living conditions suffered by flood victims, many of whom are still housed in eThekwini community halls. It also relates to the collapse of the municipality’s sanitation infrastructure, which is now having a disastrous effect on thousands of residents.
The party maintains these issues have led to a human rights crisis after local, provincial and national government’s failure to act. They say the SAHRC needs to step up and fulfil its mandate.
This is where they shoot themselves in the foot.
We can’t afford to point fingers for political point-scoring, these communities deserve better. Instead we should be joining hands to work together.
The sprawling Tin Can town of Blikkiesdorp, one of the first things you see when you fly into Cape Town’s International airport, has been housing residents for more than 15 years. Home to about 2,000 households, it was meant to be a temporary relocation area.
But the people have lived there in squalor, amid gangsterism and poverty for years without medical facilities or schools. Delft is among the top 10 areas notorious for murders according to the crime stats and yet this is allowed to continue on the city’s watch — under the auspices of the DA.
The irony of the political grandstanding by the DA in Durban on Monday is not lost on those suffering.
A natural tour de force devastated the city in April, leaving thousands homeless and, in between the bureaucratic bungles involving Treasury, public work, the premier’s office, and human settlements, and the opportunism of political parties to extract mileage from unfortunate circumstances, the people are the ones who are suffering.
Ask the people who are living in temporary residential units at the Isipingo Transit camp after floods that left them without a home in 2009. Several hundred families who are forgotten. Like the residents of Blikkiesdorp.
These are people for whom a home is a flimsy tin shack, who have no proper electricity, sanitation or access to parks, schools or recreational facilities. These are people who have been let down by government for years. And then when a local election looms — they are wooed with promises of a better future.
The blame lies on both sides of the political spectrum in these matters. A right to decent housing and water is enshrined in our country’s constitution.
We can’t afford to point fingers for political point-scoring, these communities deserve better. Instead we should be joining hands to work together. It is high time all authorities were held accountable in addressing these inhumane living conditions.
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