South African company under scrutiny for separate toilets for blacks

Johannesburg, Nov 5 (IANS/EFE) South Africa's Human Rights Commission has launched a probe into a commercial complex in the province of Limpopo which has reportedly segregated toilets for blacks.

"We are aware of this incident and our provincial office is on its way to verify these shocking allegations", said the organisation's spokesman, Isaac Mangena, after the story was reported in the Sowetan newspaper.

The owners of the complex told the newspaper that 30 black businessmen who rent commercial space in the building have to use different toilets than whites.

The Vleissentraal complex is located in the town of Louis Trichardt, where, as in most of the country, blacks are a majority and account for over 70 percent of the total population.

In 1994, South Africa put an end to the apartheid system imposed by the white minority which represented less than 10 percent of the population at the time.

But racism is still common and the Human Rights Commission recorded more than 500 cases last year, many in universities still under the control of the white minority.

Racial discrimination against blacks occurs mostly in rural areas of the country such as Limpopo, where workers in farms, mostly owned by whites, and other workers often live in extremely bad conditions.

--IANS/EFE

ab/bg