I can't speak much to that because we haven't yet engaged in a direct manner with the authorities to gauge their reaction to this report.

Haven't there been previous investigations and reports?

Absolutely. The constitution mandates us to protect, promote and monitor the observance of human rights, so we have conducted various investigations and reports on the right to water.

What has come of these reports and recommendations?

We investigate complaints from an individual or community forum and follow up to ensure there is relief as it pertains to the direct complaint. We conduct many such investigations and resolve many such cases by ensuring the water service authorities deliver and bring relief.

So why after 30 years of democracy are 70% of rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal still getting their drinking water from dams and rivers used by animals?

It's an absolute shame and an absolute disgrace.

Why has the HRC not done more to ensure that the authorities address this?

It's a myriad of problems that directly affect the observance and enjoyment of human rights. It's a multilayered problem. Different institutions, such as the auditor-general and public protector for example, find challenges with regard to maladministration by local authorities which lead to a lack of service delivery. The Cogta department releases an annual state-of-local-government report which maps out the extent of the dysfunction in local government. So it's not just an HRC issue.

Don't you have a mandate to ensure that state institutions don't violate people's human rights?

Absolutely. Which is why we have conducted an investigation of this nature, having observed and noted through our monitoring exercises that there's a systemic problem here, whereas before we were dealing with these issues on an individual basis.

Are you going to be monitoring the implementation of your recommendations more closely?

Absolutely. It's going to be one of the critical ways forward out of this. We are going to be presenting this report to the provincial legislature because it also has a very important role to play in ensuring that municipalities and the provincial government implement our recommendations

Shouldn't you be using your powers of subpoena more effectively to hold the responsible authorities accountable?

We do use our powers of subpoena. But we try to engage with the necessary institutions prior to a subpoena being issued. But where they blatantly ignore us we use our powers to say that under law you are obliged to follow our recommendations.

So why are they're still ignoring you?

There are instances where they do implement our recommendations

But 70% of rural communities still have to get their drinking water from rivers and dams, schools still have pit toilets?

One has to view this within the context of a state where the systems themselves seem to be failing because of governance failures. It's not just the non-implementation of our recommendations.

Source: Sunday Times