Cape Town - Despite the extension of equality courts to magistrate’s courts to attend to matters of equality, communities are still submitting complaints of this nature to the Human Rights Commission.
This emerged during a community engagement on Equality Toolkits on Thursday, where the provincial Human Rights Commission (HRC), in partnership with Langa Community Advice Services, hosted a workshop for community’s stakeholders.
The toolkit engagement was aimed at teaching the community about the Equality Legislation and popularising the use of equality courts.
Langa Community Advice Services director Viwe Sandlana said people were still not aware of where to receive assistance on matters relating to unfair discrimination, hate speech, and harassment.
“This engagement is important to ensure that communities can knock at the right doors to ensure that they receive the appropriate assistance timeously. Family matters, housing problems, and evictions remain the main causes that we always deal with, but these are best resolved when the relevant institution is approached sooner,” he said.
Human Rights Commission Advocacy and Research officer Lesego Raphalane said a lack of education was one of the contributing factors towards people not utilising equality courts.
“The HRC and the Commission for Gender Equality only have one office in the Western Cape, while the public protector has two – a satellite office in George and the city – and we have to work the whole province.
“If we are receiving 100 files per district, weekly, on equality – then it means there is a disconnect somewhere, considering that there are equality courts everywhere in the province. Our aim, as the HRC, is that while we promote equality, we also encourage people to make use of these courts,” he said.
Raphalane said a bulk of their cases on equality were equality matters that would be addressed speedily if taken to equality courts.
“We work on a first come, first serve basis at the commission – which can take three to four months to get assistance, as compared to when they go to equality courts,” he said.
However, Raphalane said that when complaints do not fall under their jurisdiction, the HRC had a referral system in place – where a direct referral is made or legal advice is offered to clients as the next step.