The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says the plight of hostel dwellers had been ignored for many years. The commission has called on government to speedily provide a lasting solution.
This emerged during the handing over of temporary mobile housing structures to scores of Mamelodi hostel residents east of Pretoria.
Shafik Amirmeer from the Human Rights Commission says government has failed hostel residents in many ways.
“It’s a disgrace, we’ve been raising this issue for many years even in Parliament, in 2015 already. The problem is they do not implement recommendations. So now we are saying we have spoken on all these social ills in this country and no longer going to call on the commission of inquiries but we are going to work on time frames and when are you going to implement. We are gonna take you to that level,” says Amirmeer.
More donations:
Meanwhile, Minister of Human Settlements Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu and the Danish government also donated water tanks, masks and sanitisers to more than 1000 residents most of them living in dilapidated hostel buildings.
Sisulu says the R64-million temporary housing structures will go a long way to improve the lives of hostel residents. A total of 1000 units will be built over a period of two months of the first phase. 10 000 hostel residents stand to benefit.
Sisulu says they’re working on a permanent solution.
“You also noticed that there are no ablution blocks which we also provided, water and sanitation. And these are just show houses to indicated what we can provide as soon as possible. And we prioritise women because of the children whenever we build. We want to make sure that our children are looked after. They also grow up in secured places and to secure a better future for our children,” says Sisulu.
[PICTURES ?] The Danish Embassy has donated water storage tanks that will be used by the Mamelodi Hostel dwellers. pic.twitter.com/33QRoqLxjN
— Lindiwe Sisulu (@LindiweSisuluSA) May 14, 2020
