Johannesburg -
The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has welcomed news that a report on the state of the country's sanitation facilities will be released next week.
“The release of this report coincides with the imminent launch of the commission's provincial hearings on access to the right to water and sanitation,” the SAHRC said in a statement on Thursday.
“The hearings will hear from communities on the problems they face in accessing their rights and government's response to ensuring these constitutional rights.”
The hearings are expected to start next Wednesday in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.
The report was meant to be tabled on Wednesday by Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexale.
Instead, copies of an interim report of the ministerial sanitation task team containing findings and recommendations were distributed and later taken away from journalists.
MPs were allowed to keep and study the report.
“After discussion with the team itself, we saw it wise not to release this week an interim report, rather to do so when we have a finalised report,” Sexwale said on Wednesday.
The task team was established in 2011 following reports of open or incomplete toilets in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, Moqhaka in the Free State, and Moutse in Mpumalanga.
The team, headed by ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was asked to investigate the scale and nature of the problem and to advise on remedial steps. - Sapa