Friday March 21, is Human Rights Day, honouring those killed at Sharpeville on this date in 1960.
It is a reminder that our human rights were hard-earned, with the state obliged to take ongoing steps to respect, protect, promote and fulfil them.
Yet, in 2025, the reality is that many rights exist on paper only, and today’s so-called freedoms are shackled by institutional collapse.
It is hardly surprising then that many of us, especially the poor and vulnerable, ask why we celebrate “rights” if we sit in the dark, hoping the taps will yield water, fighting to give our children a quality education so they can fulfil their potential and praying our families will make it safely home without being a victim of violent crime.
What exactly are we celebrating? SA’s constitution entrenches various rights for everyone, which include socioeconomic rights, such as access to housing, healthcare services and water.
Government is required to realise most socioeconomic rights progressively.
This may sound good in a law lecture, but after years of collapse, corruption and excuses, the truth is inescapable: it is a euphemism for “not any time soon”.
We see this in neglected infrastructure all over the country.
In Johannesburg, City Power cannot keep the lights on and in Tshwane, potholes are becoming sinkholes.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, preschool children face streams of raw sewage outside their creche.
Rural schools still have pit latrines, and the bucket system persists in seven out of nine provinces.
This reality occurs even though the constitution gives everyone the right to an environment that is not harmful to our health or wellbeing, and requires the state to make accessible, equitable quality education available to all school pupils — immediately.
In November, Johannesburg will host the 2025 G20 Leaders’ Summit.
It is the first time the summit is being held in Africa and President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised to use the event to showcase SA’s leadership.
However, it is hard to impress world leaders when your own city is falling apart — which the President himself highlighted when he said the state of the city was “not very pleasing”.
Sadly, Johannesburg is not the exception. To see what human rights failure looks like, most of us need only look out of the window.
The 2025 budget allocated R1.03-trillion for infrastructure over three years.
But with service delivery failures, record-high crime, and widespread unemployment, how much of this will reach the people who need it?
Debt-service costs now exceed spending on health, policing and basic education.
What does this mean for an ordinary person seeking medical care, housing, schooling or safety and security?
Accountability, a foundational constitutional value and principle of governance, means far more than rhetoric, and President Ramaphosa’s criticism must translate into action.
Human Rights Day, however, should not only focus on government failure because many rights — including the rights to dignity, equality and the provision of a clean and healthy environment — extend to other actors, including those in the private sector.
Our Bill of Rights binds companies and various private actors from polluting, exploiting, discriminating against or dodging their responsibilities to workers and communities.
In SA, many businesses have become frontline service providers.
Think of security firms, water suppliers, borehole and generator providers, and those offering alternate sources of energy such as solar power.
As public providers, they too must advance the human rights agenda.
Media, tech platforms and companies that shape public discourse are similarly bound and have a duty to respect and promote human rights.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, several firms have rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to fill the metro’s myriad potholes, fix decaying schools, and solve key leaks.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has an “adopt a substation” initiative so that key substations are guarded to ward off power cuts.
However, while we salute those who help, many firms do not do enough.
Think about it: if your business thrives on state collapse, don’t you have an obligation to give back?
If you make a profit due to a broken system, should you take the money and run? Is this ethical citizenship?
Clearly, with dysfunctional municipalities all over the country, the state has the primary duty to provide services and to support municipalities.
In the faculty of law at Nelson Mandela University we have master’s and doctoral candidates doing work around access to water, electricity and healthcare services.
These are core socioeconomic rights, and research in these areas is aimed at advancing social justice and society’s needs.
NGOs hold the state to account
Experience shows that when government fails, the courts become the battleground for human rights enforcement.
All too often it is non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which lead, and play a significant role in holding the state to account.
The constitution permits NGOs, and anyone acting in the public interest, to approach the courts alleging a human rights violation and ask for appropriate constitutional remedies.
Across the country, NGOs such as the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of SA, Corruption Watch, Section 27 and many others are doing wonderful work, pro bono, to fill the gap created by a dysfunctional state administration.
Many of the big cases around the rights to housing, electricity, health care, education and the protection of the environment, among other rights, have been brought to court by NGOs.
It is also through public interest litigation that our human rights jurisprudence has developed.
However, who funds this?
In February, Donald Trump’s administration cut $440m (R7.9bn) of USAID, with a profound impact on human rights protection in SA.
Not only is funding for healthcare workers and antiretroviral treatment slashed, there also will be less money for public interest research and litigation, which will undermine human rights advocacy and protection in SA.
We all have an obligation.
We should support these organisations to hold the various levels of government accountable.
However, in our private capacity, we are not passive agents: the constitution says that we all have an obligation to take steps where we can.
And we must.
Nelson Mandela University honorary doctorate Jody Kollapen, justice of the Constitutional Court, speaks out strongly on this, noting that though the courts play a vital part, government and society share a joint responsibility.
“In time, future generations will ask ... how could a society with a history such as ours, armed with the constitution that we have and acutely aware of the dire consequences inequality and poverty hold for our future, have allowed poverty and inequality to endure for so long?” he asks.
Rights should not be something we celebrate once a year. And, whether we represent a business, an NGO or are merely one small voice, we each have a role to play in realising these rights.
Joanna Botha is a NRF-rated professor of public law at NMU’s faculty of law, where she teaches and supervises students in human rights law at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
The Herald
‘Celebrating’ Human Rights Day when today’s freedoms are shackled by institutional collapse
Image: supplied
Friday March 21, is Human Rights Day, honouring those killed at Sharpeville on this date in 1960.
It is a reminder that our human rights were hard-earned, with the state obliged to take ongoing steps to respect, protect, promote and fulfil them.
Yet, in 2025, the reality is that many rights exist on paper only, and today’s so-called freedoms are shackled by institutional collapse.
It is hardly surprising then that many of us, especially the poor and vulnerable, ask why we celebrate “rights” if we sit in the dark, hoping the taps will yield water, fighting to give our children a quality education so they can fulfil their potential and praying our families will make it safely home without being a victim of violent crime.
What exactly are we celebrating? SA’s constitution entrenches various rights for everyone, which include socioeconomic rights, such as access to housing, healthcare services and water.
Government is required to realise most socioeconomic rights progressively.
This may sound good in a law lecture, but after years of collapse, corruption and excuses, the truth is inescapable: it is a euphemism for “not any time soon”.
We see this in neglected infrastructure all over the country.
In Johannesburg, City Power cannot keep the lights on and in Tshwane, potholes are becoming sinkholes.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, preschool children face streams of raw sewage outside their creche.
Rural schools still have pit latrines, and the bucket system persists in seven out of nine provinces.
This reality occurs even though the constitution gives everyone the right to an environment that is not harmful to our health or wellbeing, and requires the state to make accessible, equitable quality education available to all school pupils — immediately.
In November, Johannesburg will host the 2025 G20 Leaders’ Summit.
It is the first time the summit is being held in Africa and President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised to use the event to showcase SA’s leadership.
However, it is hard to impress world leaders when your own city is falling apart — which the President himself highlighted when he said the state of the city was “not very pleasing”.
Sadly, Johannesburg is not the exception. To see what human rights failure looks like, most of us need only look out of the window.
The 2025 budget allocated R1.03-trillion for infrastructure over three years.
But with service delivery failures, record-high crime, and widespread unemployment, how much of this will reach the people who need it?
Debt-service costs now exceed spending on health, policing and basic education.
What does this mean for an ordinary person seeking medical care, housing, schooling or safety and security?
Accountability, a foundational constitutional value and principle of governance, means far more than rhetoric, and President Ramaphosa’s criticism must translate into action.
Human Rights Day, however, should not only focus on government failure because many rights — including the rights to dignity, equality and the provision of a clean and healthy environment — extend to other actors, including those in the private sector.
Our Bill of Rights binds companies and various private actors from polluting, exploiting, discriminating against or dodging their responsibilities to workers and communities.
In SA, many businesses have become frontline service providers.
Think of security firms, water suppliers, borehole and generator providers, and those offering alternate sources of energy such as solar power.
As public providers, they too must advance the human rights agenda.
Media, tech platforms and companies that shape public discourse are similarly bound and have a duty to respect and promote human rights.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, several firms have rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to fill the metro’s myriad potholes, fix decaying schools, and solve key leaks.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has an “adopt a substation” initiative so that key substations are guarded to ward off power cuts.
However, while we salute those who help, many firms do not do enough.
Think about it: if your business thrives on state collapse, don’t you have an obligation to give back?
If you make a profit due to a broken system, should you take the money and run? Is this ethical citizenship?
Clearly, with dysfunctional municipalities all over the country, the state has the primary duty to provide services and to support municipalities.
In the faculty of law at Nelson Mandela University we have master’s and doctoral candidates doing work around access to water, electricity and healthcare services.
These are core socioeconomic rights, and research in these areas is aimed at advancing social justice and society’s needs.
NGOs hold the state to account
Experience shows that when government fails, the courts become the battleground for human rights enforcement.
All too often it is non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which lead, and play a significant role in holding the state to account.
The constitution permits NGOs, and anyone acting in the public interest, to approach the courts alleging a human rights violation and ask for appropriate constitutional remedies.
Across the country, NGOs such as the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of SA, Corruption Watch, Section 27 and many others are doing wonderful work, pro bono, to fill the gap created by a dysfunctional state administration.
Many of the big cases around the rights to housing, electricity, health care, education and the protection of the environment, among other rights, have been brought to court by NGOs.
It is also through public interest litigation that our human rights jurisprudence has developed.
However, who funds this?
In February, Donald Trump’s administration cut $440m (R7.9bn) of USAID, with a profound impact on human rights protection in SA.
Not only is funding for healthcare workers and antiretroviral treatment slashed, there also will be less money for public interest research and litigation, which will undermine human rights advocacy and protection in SA.
We all have an obligation.
We should support these organisations to hold the various levels of government accountable.
However, in our private capacity, we are not passive agents: the constitution says that we all have an obligation to take steps where we can.
And we must.
Nelson Mandela University honorary doctorate Jody Kollapen, justice of the Constitutional Court, speaks out strongly on this, noting that though the courts play a vital part, government and society share a joint responsibility.
“In time, future generations will ask ... how could a society with a history such as ours, armed with the constitution that we have and acutely aware of the dire consequences inequality and poverty hold for our future, have allowed poverty and inequality to endure for so long?” he asks.
Rights should not be something we celebrate once a year. And, whether we represent a business, an NGO or are merely one small voice, we each have a role to play in realising these rights.
Joanna Botha is a NRF-rated professor of public law at NMU’s faculty of law, where she teaches and supervises students in human rights law at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
The Herald
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