Cape Town - More than 170 households in Riemvasmaak informal settlement, less than 3km from Caledon, are forced to share seven communal toilets, of which only two are working.
Residents of the settlement claim they live under apartheid-style conditions. They say the Theewaterskloof Municipality has neglected them for years and failed to address their grievances.
While some members of the community are continuing to use the blocked toilets, others are relieving themselves in a nearby bush.
The municipality has blamed vandalism, especially the depositing of other objects into the bowls, for the poor state of the toilets.
But resident Isaac Merani said the toilets had been vandalised because they served no purpose. They were simply not working.
Mother-of-four Nosakele Robeni, 55, said there was a time she had to walk more than 300m to access a toilet.
But after the two toilets became blocked, she and her family found a dumped bucket toilet and reused it.
It also became blocked recently, having reached maximum capacity.
Her family shared this toilet with their neighbours.
“This is not a way people should live. The municipality has stopped servicing them and now we are having to live like pigs.
“How can we avoid contracting disease when we live like this,” said Robeni.
She said none of the municipality’s promises for better sanitation had been kept. Instead, the dignity of the residents had been impaired as they had no privacy when using the toilets.
“I arrived here about five years ago and nothing much has changed. In fact, things have continued to get worse. We have run out of hope.
“If I had not fixed that dumped toilet, we would not have a toilet today. No one cares about us,” she said.
Even though the doors and water pipes of toilets were broken some of the community leaders said residents continued using them in that state because they had no choice.
Resident Monwabisi Nongxazi said residents had been promised 10 toilets several months ago, but they were still waiting.
“As you can see, this is inhuman. People are having to queue to use the toilets. The only ones that are working have been locked,” he said.
Theewaterskloof Municipality spokesperson Hugo Geldenhuys said the municipality was “severely challenged by a high influx of people in all the informal settlements”.
“It was initially anticipated that the piece of land would house a maximum of 80 households. A sewerage system for flush toilets was built and there are seven toilets in Block D to serve Blocks D and F.
“Based on 80 households, there would have been one toilet for every eleven to twelve households. Eventually, 177 families moved to the land, which resulted in seven toilets for 177 households.”
He said of these households, 32 families were on the verge of being moved to new low-cost RDP houses.
“(The) seven toilets for the remaining 145 households equals one toilet for every 21 households. This is way below the national average. People settling at Riemvasmaak quickly got out of control, and the municipality was unable to budget for it.”
Geldenhuys said the municipality spent thousands of unbudgeted funds on fixing toilets that had been vandalised. He added that the municipality constantly negotiated with the provincial and national Human Settlements departments for more funds.
“The municipality is doing everything possible to enhance service delivery in informal settlements.”
Cape Times