The open toilets saga in Makhaza in Khayelitsha took another turn yesterday when ANC Youth League members and community leaders led residents in the destruction of toilet enclosures the city council had erected hours earlier.
Since 2008, about 50 Makhaza families have had to relieve themselves in full view of the public, an embarrassment that had the youth league asking the Human Rights Commission in January this year to probe human rights violations.
Yesterday, Cape Town mayor Dan Plato personally supervised the erection of 51 enclosures, but shortly before the last enclosure was erected, youth league and Ward 95 Development Forum members began demolishing them. They told residents to join them and while some participated, others watched in shock or tried to stop the destruction.
A tearful resident, who refused to give her name as she feared intimidation, said: "It was humiliating to use the toilet when people see you. There is covering now, but look at this (destruction). It is not what I want."
Resident Phillip Bayapeli and his wife tried in vain to save their enclosure, but were told the community had rejected the corrugated enclosures and wanted concrete ones.
Plato said he had met the youth league and community leaders recently and they had agreed to tell residents that open toilets would be enclosed. He also went from house to house to get residents' permission for the enclosures, Plato said.
"Ninety-nine percent agreed they want this. I asked them to put it in writing. Now the ANCYL is trying to give the impression there was no undertaking. The ANCYL don't respect the wishes of the broader community. They are not truthful," Plato said.
Corrugated sheets used for the enclosures were not inferior to the material people used to build homes they were living in and if people wanted to destroy the new structures he would "walk away", Plato said.
"It is their call. If they do, I won't assist them," he said.
During a brief exchange of words, youth league member Loyiso Nkonhla challenged Plato to have him arrested for demolishing the enclosures.
"You f****** racist City of Cape Town. This is what you think of our people," Nkonhla screamed.
Lillian Zono, one of several people who confronted Plato, said residents wanted nothing less than concrete structures: "These toilets will not last. The wind will blow it down. You treat us like baboons. This will never happen in Mitchells Plain, Bellville or Eerste River."
Asked what right they had to destroy structures when residents had agreed, Ward 95 Development Forum leader Andile Lile said a community meeting on Sunday had decided to reject the enclosures.
"We've been given a mandate by the community to fight against this," he said.
Pressed about the fact that residents had signed an agreement and had a right to choose, Lile said: "I believe in majority rule. It must be a principle position for all of us here and not for individuals. The majority does not want this and we cannot accommodate individuals who betray us."
Lile denied there was an agreement with Plato and claimed residents were misled.
"Nobody told them what materials will be used," he said.
Sub-council 14 chairman Steven Vuba, of the DA, said: "A few individual ANCYL leaders who have toilets in their houses are trying to block progress and disrupt development in the area, especially in Ward 95. The community of Ward 95 should look at this very seriously. Such scoundrels should not be allowed to bully the community into submissiveness."
HRC spokesman Vincent Moaga did not respond to calls on what had happened to the youth league's complaint.