Amnesty says SA is failing millions living in informal settlements

By Charmaine Ndlela 

South Africa’s government is endangering the well-being and, in many cases, the lives of more than five million people living in informal settlements by failing to provide adequate housing and essential services, Amnesty International South Africa said in a report released this week.

Titled ‘Flooded and Forgotten: Informal Settlements and the Right to Housing in South Africa’, the report investigates how large-scale and seasonal floods driven by heavy rain affect residents of informal settlements and other underserved areas in Johannesburg, eThekwini and Cape Town.

Amnesty said people in these communities, many living on flood-prone land, are routinely left to cope on their own during severe weather despite the state’s legal responsibility to prepare for and respond to disasters.

“Informal settlements in South Africa along with other underserved areas like temporary relocation areas, are a sore reminder of the racial injustice and disenfranchisement that were hallmarks