‘Government encouraged discrimination of blacks’ - rights commission finds

THE South African Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has blamed the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) for ignoring and encouraging discrimination against black people at the state-owned Hartbeespoort Dam shoreline in the North West.

- BONGANI HANS

The area is also where indigenous people are made to feel unwelcome and inferior, according to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) commissioner, Professor Tshepo Madlingozi when delivering a report.

The release of the report came after an investigation into the discrimination that is taking place with land allocations at the world-class tourism destination, situated in the Madibeng Municipality.

The commission launched its investigation into the unfair treatment of black people after Mmeli Mdluli had complained on behalf of the Hartbeespoort Dam Development Initiative.

Mdluli had complained about the dam's white residents unfairly discriminating against black people by denying them permission to occupy (PTO) the dam's shoreline.

The SAHRC found that women in general were also discriminated against when they applied for the PTOs, which favoured mostly white males. This was while white male residents ran businesses without having PTOs.