'Racial bias' at Hartbeespoort

SAHRC confirms exclusion but fails to deliver protection.

- Sipho Mabena

The South African Human Rights Commission's (SAHRC) investigation into alleged racial discrimination in the allocation of land along the Hartbeespoort Dam shoreline has ended not with resolution, but rejection.

Complainants accuse the commission of dishonesty, deflection and failure to fully address their complaint, despite the report's damning findings that black applicants were sidelined for more than a decade while white occupants retained and, in some cases, expanded access to prime state-owned land.

The commission's final report, released yesterday, acknowledges that complainants were subjected to unfair discrimination based on race. It details a pattern of exclusion, unequal treatment and lack of institutional protection.

Yet the Hartbeespoort Community Development Initiative, led by Mmeli Mdluli, has dismissed the report outright.

"We submitted about 400 pages to make our case but my feeling is that they have not considered the entire submission," Mdluli said.