Amnesty International is calling on the President to ensure that human rights, as per the country’s constitution, remain a priority, even as the necessary work to combat COVID-19 is executed.
Speaking ahead of the President’s State of The Nation (SONA) address on Thursday, Shenilla Mohamed, Executive Director of Amnesty International South Africa, said; “While it is important to acknowledge the unprecedented emergency brought about by COVID-19 and the need to put in place equitable and sustainable strategies to deal with the impacts of the pandemic, the state also has the responsibility to ensure that it acts in line with its obligation to uphold human rights.”
Mohamed said, “it is concerning to note that areas that were already buckling under poor service delivery and human rights violations with regards to access to quality education, gender-based violence and access to water and sanitation, to name just a few, are not being provided with the attention and resources required.”
Research conducted by Amnesty in 2020 around access to quality education, the right to water and tackling gender-based violence reveals a further erosion of these rights during the COVID-19 pandemic.
EDUCATION
Recent research by Amnesty International on the state of education during COVID-19, has highlighted how the pandemic has exacerbated ongoing and deep inequalities in the system. In the context of continued infrastructure failings, it is not surprising that one study found that at least half of South African learners are not able to practice social distancing within overcrowded classrooms. Parliamentarians have expressed concern about insufficient supplies of PPE, as well as the state of sanitation when many schools still use pit toilets and do not have access to running water. The percentage of schools reporting running water ranges from less than half – 47% – in the Eastern Cape to 59% in KZN; 74% in Limpopo; and 78% in Mpumalanga. In North West and Limpopo provinces, only 3.6% and 1.6% respectively have access to the internet at home. The pandemic has also taken a terrible toll on an education system already suffering serious shortages of teachers. By the end of January 2021, over 1,700 teachers had died from COVID-19.
This evidence clearly demonstrates the clear disparities in access to education during COVID-19, whether it is remote online learning or the under-preparedness of public schools to be safe learning spaces. Above all, it shows the overall extent to which education is being neglected in the COVID-19 response, despite it being an essential service under the Constitution. Yet, instead of committing the necessary resources, the government actually made the situation even worse when it announced in June 2020 its plans to divert over R2 billion from the provincial education infrastructure grant, followed by a subsequent announcement that the Department of Basic Education’s overall budget would not be increased at all for the next three years, amounting to an actual reduction when inflation is taken into account.
“The education system for the poor and disadvantaged communities was broken and unequal even before COVID-19 and the situation is now even worse for these schools and for the children relying on them. The lack of a properly thought out plan, accompanied by the necessary resources to provide a quality education to all children during COVID-19, has further exacerbated the existing equalities, thereby robbing thousands of children of a future,” said Mohamed.
It is critical for the state to devise and implement a plan that takes into consideration the existing state of school infrastructure and resources and not have a one size fits all plan. “How do they expect children from poor communities to access online learning when they do not even have basic services such as sufficient classrooms, textbooks, water and sanitation, let alone access to the internet and computers?” asked Mohamed.
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
Gender-based violence is another area where urgent action is required, especially when it comes to the proper investigation and prosecution of such crimes. Despite robust legislation, research still shows that only 8.6% of reported rape cases result in a conviction. In 2019/2020, an average of 116 cases of rape were reported each day, which is only a small percentage as many cases remain unreported due to fear of further harassment or assault by police. According to StatsSA, in South Africa, 1 in 3 men hold the belief that women should not have equal rights. This demonstrates that we still have a long way to go to tackle this issue and achieve gender equality in this country.
“It is no longer enough to talk about strategic frameworks when women continue to be targeted. These strategies need to be converted into solid action plans that are well resourced and fully implemented, to ensure effective prevention and proper investigation and prosecution of gender-based violence crimes,” said Mohamed.
ACCESS TO CLEAN, SAFE AND SUFFICIENT WATER
Access to water and sanitation is critical to the prevention of the spread of COVID-19, but remains a pipe dream for many in South Africa. According to statistics from the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan, over 3 million people do not have access to water and 5.3 million households (35%) do not have access to a safe and reliable drinking water source. Despite the delivery of over 18,678 water tanks to 158 municipalities and districts last year, Amnesty International continues to receive reports of water tanks that have broken, run out of water and not been re-filled.
“The government must guarantee the human rights to water and sanitation. It must act in accordance with its international and national human rights obligations and ensure that all people in South Africa have access to safe, sufficient and reliable water and sanitation,” said Mohamed.
With few signs of the pandemic waning soon, this SONA should outline the government’s commitment and plan to prioritising human rights by committing the necessary resources and political will to tackle inequality and inadequacy in all areas of South Africa.
BACKGROUND
On 15 February 2021, Amnesty International South Africa is launching a follow up report to Broken and Unequal: the state of education in South Africa, launched in February last year. The new report examines the impacts of COVID-19 on the right to quality education and Government’s response to it. You can register to attend the virtual report launch here.
To take action and call for the right to quality education for all in South Africa, visit our campaign page here.
To take action against gender-based violence, visit our Interrupter campaign page, available here.
To take action and call for the government to deliver safe, sufficient and reliable water for all in South Africa, visit out campaign page here.
For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Jennifer Wells, Campaigner at Amnesty International South Africa; +27 847766559
Public Document
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Amnesty International South Africa office, 97 Oxford Road, Saxonwold, Johannesburg, 2196; press@amnesty.org
