Complaints of inequality and discrimination continued to spike in the country, the SA Human Rights Commission said on Thursday.

This was revealed during a press briefing at the SAHRC offices in Johannesburg.

Most complaints were received in Gauteng and the Western Cape, said Dr Khulekani Moyo, who headed the SAHRC’s equality research.

Moyo said the commission received over 450 complaints on inequality in the 2012/2013 financial year.

At least 45% of those complaints related to racial discrimination, while 11% were related to discrimination against people with disabilities.

In the 2013/2014 financial year, the commission received a total of 556 complaints on equality.

Complaints of racial discrimination had spiked to 52%, while disability discrimination complaints had increased by 13%.

The SAHRC attributed a number of factors to the rising numbers, saying tolerance levels were low.

“Even racism in the work place and, worryingly, in schools [has increased],” said facilitator Lindiwe Mokate.

She reported that the commission had attended to a number of cases relating to school and work discrimination in the Free State and Gauteng.

“These are areas which have been giving us a lack of peace of mind,” Mokate said.

The information presented by the SAHRC was compiled following a dialogue held in Kliptown in 2014 which tackled, amongst other things, sexual, racial and migrant inequalities.

The commission said people were also becoming more aware of their rights and the various avenues they could use to report incidents of discrimination. News24