International Right to Know Day Statement: Access to Information enables public participation!

Tomorrow, 28 September 2020, is the International Right to Know Day, also known as the Universal Access to Information Day. The day aims to increase public awareness of their fundamental human right to information, and to pressure governments to make this right a reality.

As the Right2Know Campaign, we strongly believe that the Government has an obligation to enable our right to access information. Section 16.1B of the constitution says that everyone should enjoy the “freedom to receive or impart information or ideas”. We assert that our right to access information is an enabling right that is a prerequisite for the realization of other socio-economic rights.

As we are in the midst of a global pandemic, the Right2Know Campaign will mark this day by hosting various peaceful pickets across three provinces to highlight COVID-19 Corruption at the municipal level. We will also host a webinar under the theme: it’s our Right to Know about Accountability for corruption! 

We are of a view that corruption and accountability has to be addressed systematically. According to R2K Deputy National Coordinator, Ghalib Galant, true accountability stems from addressing the entire system of corruption and uprooting the structures, practices and beliefs that enable and encourage corruption to flourish. In this webinar we will look at some of the aspects of addressing the system holistically so as to bring about meaningful change. 

City of Cape Town: Blocking of information and Illegal Evictions 

Earlier this month, Strandfontein residents questioned the City of Cape Town’s R44 million expenditure on a temporary shelter which housed people living on the streets during the first week of the national lockdown. The shelter closed down in less than a month and City officials insist that emergency procurement processes were followed in terms of the Supply Chain Management Policy and the Municipal Finance Management Act, to avert human suffering. Despite the blocking of information, lack of consultation and involvement of the community of Strandfontein and surrounding areas. As R2K, we believe the communities had the right to know what the location of the shelter meant to their health and safety. The city of Cape Town failed to take steps to ensure that the public have access to information and are able to fully participate in decision-making.

Whilst the City of Cape Town claimed to prevent human suffering in relation to the Strandfontein shelter, a number of people who found themselves homeless as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown were constantly harassed by the violent anti-land invasion unit after occupying the City’s open land. Most of the people were backyarders who lost income following the implementation of the national lockdown regulations. 

Last month, the Western Cape High Court brought a timely relief when it ruled that the city of Cape Town, its land invasion unit or any private contractors cannot evict people or take down shacks, whether occupied or not during the national state of disaster unless they have a court order. 

Some of the demolitions and evictions that occurred in the City of Cape Town during the national lockdown:

From the 9th to the 11th of April 2020 in Empolweni Informal Settlement in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, 49 structures were demolished. Urgent relief was given by the Western Cape High Court to a number of residents whose structures were demolished. On 17 April, the court granted an interim order, ordering the City to return the building materials confiscated from Empolweni and authorizing residents to re-erect and occupy structures there for as long as the lockdown continues.

On the 15th of May 2020 in Ocean View, Kommetjie, evictions and demolitions took place on a piece of land that is privately owned by the Ocean View Development Trust. The City denied that evictions were conducted at the time, and said that the anti-land invasion unit had acted within its mandate to demolish illegally erected structures provided that they were unoccupied.

On the 29th of June 2020 in Hangberg, Hout Bay, the SAHRC received a complaint alleging that City officials had demolished a structure. The Western Cape High Court declared the City’s conduct unlawful and unconstitutional and emphasized that home demolitions could not be carried out without a court order during alert levels 3 and 4.

On the 13th of July 2020 in Zwelethu, Mfuleni, structures on a piece of land owned by the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board which joins city-owned land, were demolished. Many of the area’s residents are desperately poor and unemployed and have been the subject of at least seven evictions carried out without a court order. 

The High Court ruling also prohibited authorities from using excessive force or destroying or confiscating material which belonged to evictees. 

To highlight these challenges, R2K in Western Cape will picket outside the Strandfontein C19 Temporary Site for Homeless people on Monday, 28 September from 9AM till 11AM. 

eThekwini Municipality: COVID-19 looters must be jailed!

R2K KZN together with other civil society organisations will picket outside the Durban City Hall from 11AM to demand an end to corruption in the eThekwini Municipality and other spheres of government. R2K has noticed a wide scale of corruption cases in local government where service delivery is needed the most. There’s a clear attempt to cover those implicated in corruption cases because of party politics. We strongly condemn any attempt to hide the misuse of state funds from the public and reject any attempt to prevent the public from knowing how the municipality is spending the community’s money.

Our right to know will remain incomplete if our struggle is limited to securing access to information alone. R2K had tried many times to engage the eThekwini Municipality on various matters of service delivery and other plans however, like any other matters, they shy away from accountability, trampling on our constitutional right to know.

We demand to know an update on the following reported cases of alleged corruption in eThekwini and other spheres of government. What is the Municipality doing to address these:

• The alleged looting of food parcels by Councilors meant for communities during COVID-19 crisis.      
• On the corruption and fraud trial of former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede and 14 others including municipal officials linked to a R430 million waste tender.
• The  excessively high water bills received by residents since the ESTIMATION principle was introduced.
• The Auditor-General’s report highlighted R2.34 billion worth of unauthorized, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure during the financial year ending June 2019. What remedial action has been taken against those implicated?
• The R2 million for VIP security formal wear, was it approved?  

We call on municipal staff and officials to show their commitment to the citizens of South Africa and reject corruption by reporting all cases of fraud and corruption because failure to report is tantamount to corruption and defeating the ends of justice.

As R2K we believe that those who are involved in corruption must be investigated, charged, and prosecuted. The NPA must use the regulations and laws at their disposal to urgently and effectively prosecute corrupt officials without fear or favor.

For more information contact: 

City of Cape Town: Nomacebo Mbayo, R2K Western Cape Organiser: 078 762 6013

eThekwini Municipality: Burton Jaganathan, R2K KZN Coordinator: 076 215 4223

Ghalib Galant, R2K Deputy National Coordinator: 084 959 1912