What happens when the right to clean water is sold off for profit – and who pays the price?
Over 30 people died during a recent cholera outbreak in the region of Hammanskraal. A politically connected but shady businessman, Edwin Sodi, was given the contract to clean up the water treatment works implicated in contaminated water sources. The work was not completed. Residents of the town of Hammanskraal have been complaining about sewage in their water for years and years. The film raises the fact that the scourge of unsafe drinking water due to mismanagement by the municipality and lack of oversight from the Department of Water and Sanitation, is a national crisis and asks: who should be held to account?
Welcome to the State Capture and Beyond campaign – an ambitious nationwide initiative committed to combating corruption and building accountability in South Africa.
Led by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and the Human Rights Media Trust (HRMT), in partnership with Brot für die Welt (BfdW) and co-funded by the European Union, this campaign tackles the far-reaching impact of state capture while promoting public participation, especially among vulnerable and marginalised groups.
Our mission is simple but urgent: to empower citizens, foster transparency in public processes, and hold those in power accountable.
Through the voices of affected communities and advocates, the three case studies and two explainer videos in this series expose how corruption severely undermines basic rights, and profiles how people are standing up to reclaim them.
