Nationwide water and sanitation hearings will start this week, the SA Human Rights Commission said on Tuesday.

The meetings will be public and will start in Mpumalanga on Wednesday and continue in all provinces until November, the commission’s deputy chairperson Pregs Govender said in Johannesburg.

“The hearings will culminate in a national hearing in March next year, where the commission’s findings will be presented to Parliament and the people of South Africa.”

She said the hearings were in line with the commission’s poverty and inequality strategy.

“Poverty and inequality have prevented people who are poor from exercising or enjoying their Constitutional rights.”

The hearings came about due to complaints of the Western Cape and Free State municipalities that had built toilets with out enlosures.

One site was in Makhaza, Cape Town, run by the DA, the other in Rammulotsi, near Viljoenskroon, in the ANC-run Moqhaka municipality.

The Human Rights Commision had ruled that the right to dignity, privacy, and a healthy environment had not been achieved by the two municipalities.

“The commissions’ findings also recognised that a lack of access to sanitation and a lack of a right-based approach to service delivery was part of a bigger problem facing millions of people who are poor,” Govender said.