Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Roy Jankielsohn MPL as well as images, here, here and here
Dumping families like refuse in open spaces by the ANC-run government is a serious human rights abuse. People of Extension five Phomolong at Winburg were allocated unserviced sites prior to the 2021 Local Government Elections with empty political promises of houses and basic services. To date, these families are still without water, electricity, houses or roads.
Residents, in corrugated iron shacks, are forced to relieve themselves in buckets and emptying them in fields where their children play. They have no electricity and have to beg for water from other residents in Winburg who themselves receive sporadic supplies of water from the Masilonyana Municipality. The human rights abuses of Phomolong residents are similar to many others across the Free State.
In reply to the question by the Democratic Alliance in the Free State Legislature, the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements, Mr Ketso Makume, indicated that a business plan has been approved with geotechnical assessments underway and a service provider appointed. He indicated further that the Department of Minerals and Energy approved the electrification of 540 stands. However, residents are stripped of their dignity and are living without basic services in what should be classified as a disaster area.
The ANC continues to put cheap pre-election promises above the dignity and human rights of the people of the Free State. The conditions of the residents of Phomolong will be contained in a report being compiled for the South African Human Rights Commission, among many other examples and impacts of environmental, water and sewage related human rights abuses by the ANC-run government in the Free State.