Cape Town - The ANC Youth League in the Western Cape says it is “disgusted” by the faeces flung at Premier Helen Zille’s convoy on Tuesday, as well as the dumping of human waste on the steps of the provincial legislature’s earlier this week.
A police escort carrying Zille and guests was targeted on Tuesday by protesters, who flung buckets of human waste at the convoy as it left an official event in Khayelitsha on Tuesday.
After the event, Zille was whisked out the back door by police.
But protesters managed to empty buckets of raw sewage on every vehicle in the convoy, including the vehicle carrying Zille, as well as a bus that had earlier ferried people to the event.
Police fired stun grenades to disperse the protesters and two people were arrested during the commotion.
On Wednesday, the ANCYL held a press conference to make its stance clear and shortly beforehand, Khaya Yozi, the Ancyl’s provincial elections co-ordinator and also the chairman of the Ancyl’s Dullah Omar region, told the Cape Argus: “We believe the attacks were disgusting.
“This was not a co-ordinated programme by the ANC Youth League.
“We recognise that there were members of ours who may have been involved, but we say it is unacceptable.
“While they are members of this organisation they are bound by its principles and values, which command how you conduct yourself as an individual too.
“Our values include respect and good morals. Throwing faeces at somebody is not something the ANC Youth League stands for.”
Yozi said the league members involved would face disciplinary action and the league in the province would also seek guidance from the national ANC on the matter.
“We will ensure that such things never happen again,” Yozi declared.
Earlier on Wednesday, Zille’s spokesman also challenged the allegations made around toilets on Tuesday.
Her spokesman, Zak Mbhele said: “The City has been rolling out portable flush toilets, to eradicate the last of the bucket systems.
“These are proper flush toilets in every respect, except that the sewage is flushed not into a mains system underground, goes into a sealed container at the bottom of the unit. These are serviced by the City three times a week.”
These were in addition to residents’ legally-prescribed access to built flush toilets - household-to-toilet ratios which were set according to national government guidelines.
Mbhele said it was “part of the ANC Youth League’s ungovernability campaign to claim that this is a roll-out of the bucket system - when it is exactly the opposite”.
“The portable flush toilets specifically aim to eradicate the bucket system,” Mbhele said.
Mayor Patricia de Lille also held a press conference on Wednesday to challenge allegations around toilets. In a statement, she said: “There have been a number of claims around the standard of sanitation provided in the City. Many of these lack historical context, are inaccurate and betray a lack of technical understanding of the nature and scale of the services provided.
“The population of Cape Town has grown by close to 30 percent over the last 10 years, the second highest growth rate in South Africa. Despite this, the City continues to provide the highest level of sanitation in the country with 97.2 percent of all residents having access to sanitation.
“This is due to sustained and large-scale investments in sanitation services in informal settlements. These include massively increased sanitation investment in sewage infrastructure which rose from R51 million in the 2006/7 financial year, to R130 million in the 2011/12 financial year.”
De Lille said the number of toilets in informal settlements had “more than doubled from 10 591 to over 35 000 over the same period”.
“The percentage of households with access to sanitation on a 1:5 ratio has increased from 47.1 percent to 88.2 percent between 2006 and 2012,” she said.
Cape Argus