Cape Town - In the latest incident in the sanitation protests, police blocked demonstrators carrying portable toilets and a bag of faeces at Cape Town Central train station on Thursday.
A short while later, a group made up mostly of women gathered at the steps of the provincial legislature in Wale Street to hand over a memorandum charging Premier Helen Zille with “genocidal neglect” and protesting against sanitation issues.
Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut said police had responded to “a potential protest situation” when people were seen carrying bags of faeces on a train.
“The crowd was blocked and prevented entry to the CBD,” Traut said.
He said that containers were also confiscated and the situation was defused.
No arrests were made and police could not confirm how many containers had been confiscated.
Meanwhile, at the legislature, the group of women placed a clean portable toilet on the steps leading to the building’s entrance.
The women took turns sitting on it.
Khayelitsha resident Nolizwi Ngcana read out the memorandum. “The refusal of the Zille government to take immediate and urgent steps to provide the people living in informal areas, decent, safe and sanitary toilets can only be described as abject genocidal neglect.”
It referred to hygiene problems caused by pollution and raw sewage and e.coli bacteria arising from poor sanitation.
“To add insult to injury, the municipality has resorted to gimmicks of handing out so-called portable flush toilets which add more humiliation for the users as family members have to relieve themselves in front of siblings, parents, grandparents,” the memorandum stated.
Ngcana said the portable toilets were a disgrace.
Vuyokazi Ncinane, from Khayelitsha, said Zille was “disrespecting the ladies” and said she came to the protest to warn Zille that if she did not respond within seven days they would be back to make a mess at the legislature.
The women were escorted by police and law enforcement vehicles as they marched down Adderley Street toward the train station.
Wayne Naidoo, from the premier’s office, collected the memorandum.
Brett Herron, the acting mayoral committee member for utility services, said portable flush toilets were an additional sanitation service offered to communities still using a bucket system and a “dignified, safe and hygienic sanitation provision”.
Cape Argus