Floods, fragility, and forgotten lives

THE torrential rains, gale-force winds, and even snowfall that battered the Eastern Cape in June unleashed catastrophic flooding, displacing over 4 700 people and affecting more than 6 800 households.

- GUGU NONJINGE

Those willing to confront the truth must admit that these floods are not merely environmental events but a profound human rights crisis. They expose the fury of nature and the consequences of systemic neglect in a country ill-prepared for climate shocks. Every collapsed home, every child lost, every family sleeping under plastic sheeting speaks to a government that continues to abandon its poorest citizens in the face of predictable and preventable harm.

Our world-renowned South African Constitution that enshrines not only civil and political rights, but also socioeconomic rights, guarantees the rights to dignity, adequate housing, healthcare, and access to basic services. Yet, when rural families are left to rebuild with no compensation, when children sleep beneath torn plastic sheets, and when schools remain cut off for weeks, these rights are not only unmet, but they are also systematically ignored. Three decades into our democracy, we are still forced to ask: Whose rights truly count in a crisis? Whose suffering must become a public spectacle before the state chooses to respond?