A damning report has highlighted horrific shortfalls in the provision of water and sanitation and the failure to end violence against women and children in some of South Africa's poorest provinces.
The report by the Presidential Working Group on Women (PWGW) comes as women and gender rights groups yesterday called for stronger political leadership in the fight to stop violence against women.
President Thabo Mbeki, who addressed the PWGW in Pretoria on Tuesday, has also come down hard - giving the group a four-week deadline to expand their organisation to see what is needed to be done to alleviate the plight of women and children.
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The PWGW is a group of women who represent non-governmental organisations, labour and business.
The report, a copy of which is in the Pretoria News' possession, focused on districts in the Free State, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.
It revealed how in the Free State at the Millicent Noluthando Hospice in the Makwana Village, 65 terminally ill patients, including four children, were sharing six rooms and one pit toilet.
Another horrific example over the lack of basic services cited by the report are conditions at Sechaba Children's Multipurpose Centre.
There is only one pit toilet at the centre for 80 girls and 110 boys.
The report stated: "Serious constraints on housing, water, sanitation and lack of privacy exacerbates gender-based violence."
It added: "The incidents and cases of gender-based violence on the increase.
"Shortage of clean water resources and adequate sewerage networks provide a fertile breeding ground for water-borne diseases.
"Poor communication delays service provision of necessary intervention with the shortage and costly search for skills; and challenging terrain deters potential technical experts from signing up for jobs in rural and farm areas."
In the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, the report stated that backlogs in low-cost housing, the lack of capacity to spend money, lack of technical expertise and shortages of proper water and sanitation facilities were having a serious affect on the health of women and children with water-borne diseases being rife.
The report also highlighted the lack of water and sanitation in the Muhuyu village in Limpopo where 5 000 people share one borehole and one stream with 50 pupils and three teachers at a school sharing two pit toilets.
Gender Links executive director Colleen Lowe Morna said strong political leadership was needed especially when it came to ending gender-based violence.
"(It) is the single most persistent and pervasive violation of human rights in South Africa with the data gathered on it inadequate, especially as most cases are not being reported.
"We are failing to make progress because not enough resources are being allocated, the approach to the violence is reactive and there is weak co-ordination between sectors that are meant to work together," said Morna.
PWGW chairperson Gloria Serobe said they were confident they could meet the president's deadline.
"We work well with deadlines and will achieve our objectives."
- This article was originally published on page 2 of Pretoria News on June 25, 2008
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