Madonsela tells public they have right to complain

The public protector, Thuli Madonsela, has urged South Africans to familiarise themselves with their constitutional rights and not be shy to complain if they believe their rights have been violated.

Speaking at her office’s commemoration of Human Rights Month in Calvinia on Tuesday last week, Madonsela said all South Africans have a right to administrative justice.

Her address centred on the people’s right to complain and the state’s responsibility to deal with complaints promptly and effectively while providing credible mechanisms to handle people’s complaints.

Madonsela told a packed Hantam Community Hall that citizens have a right to a ‘just administrative action’ and called on all decision makers, especially those entrusted with public power, to respect and adhere to the public’s right to just administrative decisions.

“All decision makers have a duty to comply with your right to just administrative action,” she said, adding that if people wanted to know why a certain decision was made, they were not insulting anyone’s authority but exercising their right to know.

She urged communities to make efforts to know their constitutional rights, adding that this would ensure that government is responsive to needs of the people, acts with integrity and is accountable to its people.

The public protector, however, warned the public that their right to complain did not include destroying public property and harming others.

She appealed to communities to use constitutionally provided mechanisms to lodge their grievances. These mechanisms included her office, the human rights commission and other Chapter 9 institutions. Madonsela also threw her weight behind whistle-blowers but lashed out at information peddlers who masquerade as whistle-blowers.

Communities of Calvinia used the opportunity to complain to the public protector about a range of issues affecting them on daily basis. They complained about lack of access to basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation.

One complainant told the public protector that he applied for a surname change at the Home Affairs department in 2010 and nothing had been done to date.

More complaints related to housing, with community members complaining that they applied for RDP houses many years ago but they were yet to receive them. Others alleged that councillors were selling the houses to undeserving people.

Madonsela promised the community that her office would take up their complaints with the relevant authorities and ensure that they are urgently attended to.