Sipho Singiswa, Director of Media for Justice, asks Deputy Chair of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) Pregs Govender to respond to the critique that their org often arrives after the fact – at a stage where the communities rights have already been violated. Govender responds to this question by concurring that this has been a problem that she has attempted to remedy via various programs and strategies. She says that human rights are undermined globally as services become commodified and rights such as water, education, housing and food security are no longer treated as rights but are seen as commodities in a system that increasingly places profits before people. She says that this mindset has to be changed and that apartheid spatial geography determines who has rights.
Pregs Govender also talks about holding Corporates and foreign investors accountable and monitoring municipalities to ensure that they deliver services, water and sanitation to communities.
Lastly she talks on the indivisibility of human rights – and the need to stop talking about people in fragmented ways but to embrace the whole person.