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People should not yet get excited about the Government of National Unity and the Government of Provincial Unity because things are not going to change overnight, KwaZulu-Natal Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Francois Rodgers warned. <\/span><\/p>\n He was addressing a handful of DA supporters who commemorated Human Rights Day on Friday by cleaning <\/span>Rinaldo Park in <\/span>Red Hill, north of <\/span>Durban. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt is a long, long journey ahead,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n He said since the party had two seats in the provincial government, it would be a difficult task to be able to turn around the collapsing service delivery.<\/span><\/p>\n He said the GPU inherited a collapsed and failed province after the May general elections, which saw the ANC losing power to govern alone. <\/span><\/p>\n He made examples of many people who did not have <\/span>access to water, which is a basic life-supporting resource.<\/span><\/p>\n Rodgers and some DA leaders celebrated the day by painting the <\/span>park and picking up rubbish from a nearby stream.<\/span><\/p>\n He called on those who accompanied him to do some introspection and reflection on human rights as most people take the day for granted \u201cbecause we live in our society and in our environment where we have access to almost everything we want\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMost of us have water, and if we don\u2019t have water, we put a Jojo tank and if we have money, we put a borehole. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMany, many thousands of people in this city, province, and country don\u2019t have water at all,\u201d he said, adding that<\/span> those who were poor did not have the resources to provide for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n He said the people should ask themselves if the post-1994 right to vote has given the dignity and the human rights that go with democracy. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe simple answer is no,\u201d said Rodgers. <\/span><\/p>\n He made an example of plastic bags found in the stream, which contained human waste \u201cbecause people are using them (plastic bags) as a toilet\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd then closing the package and throwing it into the stream because they don\u2019t have access to effective sanitation.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDoes that mean that the people in Ward 110 have human rights? Are their human rights protected? Their human rights are not protected,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Rodgers was looking at next year\u2019s local government election where if the party took over municipalities, it would bring change. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe way to change and instill the rights of the people is by taking control of the municipalities. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have that opportunity in the coming by-elections and next year\u2019s municipal elections,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n He said the party had the potential to take over the eThekwini Municipality based on its previous performance, which gave it enough votes to form a coalition there. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe took the right decision by saying we were not going to work with the ANC in what was the unstable coalition government. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat is why we need to ensure that we now vote, we need to talk to people that having the right to vote has not guaranteed everyone access to human dignity,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n bongani.hans@inl.co.za<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People should not yet get excited about the Government of National Unity and the Government of Provincial Unity because things are not going to change overnight, KwaZulu-Natal Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Francois Rodgers warned. He was addressing a handful of DA supporters who commemorated Human Rights Day on Friday by cleaning Rinaldo Park in Red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[8099,12782,344,2315,5849,2791,3963,6891,16128,943],"class_list":["post-235126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","tag-crisis","tag-da039s","tag-day","tag-delivery","tag-highlights","tag-human","tag-kzn","tag-rights","tag-rodgers","tag-service"],"yoast_head":"\n