South Africa: We Checked 470 Toilets in This Cape Town Informal Settlement. Only 45 Were Working

“Only those who are desperate still live here” says Marikana community leader

GroundUp counted 470 communal toilets in Marikana informal settlement in Philippi East, Cape Town, last week. Only 45 were working. More than 4,000 families live in the settlement, according to community leaders.

Community leader Loyiso Nkqitiza said that for more than eight years, residents have had to relieve themselves in nearby bushes or use the portable flush toilets provided by the City. In one-roomed shacks, the portable toilets (porta potties) offer no privacy, and most residents prefer to use the communal toilets outside the shack.

But many of the communal toilets don’t have doors. Others have doors but no toilet bowls. Some have neither. Only 45 are usable.

“There are few toilets for this settlement,” said resident Nowakhile Nkwitshi. “We do not have privacy because the toilets do not have doors and the toilets that do have doors do not have buckets.” She said that, at times, she does not go to the toilet even when she needs to, especially at night.

“There are times when people have to queue for a toilet because the toilets are not enough. Even those that are working are not serviced regularly.”

Nkqitiza said community leaders have for years tried to speak to the City of Cape Town with no success.

“We have children, women and elderly people who cannot go and relieve themselves in bushes because their safety will be compromised. For how long must we always chase after the City of Cape Town for a problem that they know exists?” he asked.

Zahid Badroodien, the City’s mayco member for water and sanitation, said there were 451 communal toilets in the settlement and 1,625 portable flush toilets. He said doors were missing on 105 communal toilets, and the City was “busy with the process to replace the missing toilet doors”.

“An order has been placed for doors and repairs/replacements will be scheduled once the new stock is received,” he said.

Badroodien said cleaning services were continuing without disruption.

But when GroundUp visited the area last week, we counted 470 communal toilets and found only 45 were working.

In one section of the settlement, which Nkqitiza says is home to about 800 families, only one of the toilets in six toilet blocks was working.

The settlement, started in 2012, used to be much bigger. But crime and lack of services has driven people out, says Nkqitiza.

“Only people who are desperate still live here.”

By GroundUp.