People should not yet get excited about the Government of National Unity and the Government of Provincial Unity because things are not going to change overnight, KwaZulu-Natal Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Francois Rodgers warned.
He was addressing a handful of DA supporters who commemorated Human Rights Day on Friday by cleaning Rinaldo Park in Red Hill, north of Durban.
“It is a long, long journey ahead,” he said.
He said since the party had two seats in the provincial government, it would be a difficult task to be able to turn around the collapsing service delivery.
He said the GPU inherited a collapsed and failed province after the May general elections, which saw the ANC losing power to govern alone.
He made examples of many people who did not have access to water, which is a basic life-supporting resource.
Rodgers and some DA leaders celebrated the day by painting the park and picking up rubbish from a nearby stream.
He called on those who accompanied him to do some introspection and reflection on human rights as most people take the day for granted “because we live in our society and in our environment where we have access to almost everything we want”.
“Most of us have water, and if we don’t have water, we put a Jojo tank and if we have money, we put a borehole.
“Many, many thousands of people in this city, province, and country don’t have water at all,” he said, adding that those who were poor did not have the resources to provide for themselves.
He said the people should ask themselves if the post-1994 right to vote has given the dignity and the human rights that go with democracy.
“The simple answer is no,” said Rodgers.
He made an example of plastic bags found in the stream, which contained human waste “because people are using them (plastic bags) as a toilet”.
“And then closing the package and throwing it into the stream because they don’t have access to effective sanitation.
“Does that mean that the people in Ward 110 have human rights? Are their human rights protected? Their human rights are not protected,” he said.
Rodgers was looking at next year’s local government election where if the party took over municipalities, it would bring change.
“The way to change and instill the rights of the people is by taking control of the municipalities.
“We have that opportunity in the coming by-elections and next year’s municipal elections,” he said.
He said the party had the potential to take over the eThekwini Municipality based on its previous performance, which gave it enough votes to form a coalition there.
“We took the right decision by saying we were not going to work with the ANC in what was the unstable coalition government.
“That is why we need to ensure that we now vote, we need to talk to people that having the right to vote has not guaranteed everyone access to human dignity,” he said.