South Africa's water department failed to fix racial and gender bias in Hartbeespoort Dam shoreline leases, the Human Rights Commission found.

On 26 November 2025 the South African Human Rights Commission found that the Department of Water and Sanitation, which controls state land around Hartbeespoort Dam, failed to address racial and gender disparities in shoreline lease allocations, leaving black and female applicants facing indirect unfair discrimination in breach of the Constitution and the Equality Act, and found only two black applicants had received leases in the past decade. The Commission directed DWS to adopt a revised lease policy and a transformation plan with numerical targets within 180 days and to review revoked Permissions to Occupy within 90 days and give affected people a chance to make representations.