Siyavuya Mzantsi
THERE has been mixed reaction towards the City’s installation of communal toilets in SST Block, Khayelitsha, where the body of Sinoxolo Mafevuka, 19, was discovered in March.
Yesterday, residents said the damage had already been done – a lack of sanitation facilities that led to the murder of a young woman – but others described it as a step in the right direction.
Construction of about 400 toilets is under way to replace 194 removed about two weeks ago.
Mafevuka’s naked body was found in one of the 12 toilets situated about 250m from her house on March 2. She had been raped, but no “foreign DNA” was found on the teenager’s body.
Police believed that most of the forensic evidence was washed away as the toilets were in a poor state and flooded with water.
SST block resident and steering committee member Colin Nomatiti said the project was aimed at decreasing the number of families sharing one toilet.
“We think this is a positive step because they say they will be better than the ones that were here before. These new ones will accommodate more residents. Five families used to share one toilet,” he said.
The new toilets mean there will be less families per toilet. The toilets are the same as the previous ones.
Nomatiti said a number of toilets will be built close to the section where Mafevuka resided, but for this 28 families need to be relocated.
“We had stood up before, but nothing happened until after Sinoxolo’s murder; they pulled up their socks. We do want change, but it’s the way they are making that change which is a concern.”
He added that the slow pace of service delivery, and little or no communication from the City, was a problem.
SST resident Maxhoba Mancoba said: “What change are the new toilets going to bring? My concern is that they said they approached the residents, but I was asking myself why they would start construction without consulting us.”
Another resident, Nozipho Butyana, said: “We just saw construction of the toilets without anything being said. It was after the murder of that girl that they took action. We’d rather risk going to the bushes than using those toilets (the temporary toilets installed by the City, as the new toilets are being installed).”
Utility and services Mayco member Ernest Sonnenberg said the installation of additional toilets was the subject of protracted negotiations with the community over many years. The project is worth about R3.5 million.
He said most toilets had to be removed as they had been rendered unusable due to vandalism and misuse, while a small number had become structurally unsound due to being situated on sandy, flood-prone terrain.
“This forms part of a wider toilet rehabilitation project for SST – 194 of the 324 existing toilets had to be removed, mostly due to misuse and vandalism by residents.”
Social Justice Coalition (SJC) spokeperson Axolile Notywala said the City was responding to a crisis and would not have upgraded the toilets if Mavefuka’s murder did not take place.
“While this is a step in the right direction, it’s a problem that it had to take someone to die before anything could be done. It means that someone will have to die in another informal settlement for residents to get proper services.”