DA appeals to SAHRC over Ekurhuleni portable toilets non-payment

DA

Cape Town — The Democratic Alliance (DA) lodged a complaint to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) over the non-payment of protable toilets in Ekuhuleni.

In a statement, the DA’s Refiloe Nt’Sekhe said 45 000 units have been supplied to the Ekurhuleni Department of Water and Sanitation, but many of them have not been paid for over 200 days, leading to a lack of maintenance.

“As a result, residents in some areas have reported that their toilets have not been serviced for up to three months. Some residents have even informed the DA that they are seeing worms surfacing in their toilets due to the lack of faeces removal,” Nt’Sekhe said.

This has led to frustrated suppliers who want to withdraw their services from Ekuhuleni over unpaid services affecting their business.  The DA said this was a clear violation of human rights as residents have become outraged and feel neglected over the lack of sanitation facilities.

Nt’Sekhe said the current conditions are unacceptable and pose a serious health threat to the residents, saying some are still recovering from a cholera pandemic.

“The DA has therefore reached out to the SAHRC to investigate this infringement and hold the government accountable. The people of Ekurhuleni demand answers and urgent solutions to their plight. We have also appealed to the SAHRC to ascertain why it is taking the government so long to formalise services in our informal settlements,” Nt’Sekhe said.

The DA in Gauteng will ensure that residents are afforded the dignity they deserve and will monitor the investigation to ensure the change it brought to the Ekurhuleni informal settlements.

According to The Citizen, the DA’s Solly Msimanga said the servicing of toilets came to an end in December last year, which led to protests in Windmill and Lindelani. Unpaid services also affected Thokoza, Daveyton, Tembisa, Germiston and Boskburg.

“The DA discovered that some residents were emptying their toilets by digging holes in their backyards. They would use five-litre buckets to collect waste, which was then transferred into a 20-litre container and taken to the hole they had dug,” the party told SAHRC.

Fleets of trucks were needed to dispose and clean units regularly, and the DA said Ekurhuleni paid enough to allow them to resume work, but payments stalled when services were up and running again.

Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said the municipality did not comment on the letter sent to the SAHRC but would compile a response once it received the notice.

Msimanga said informal settlements were almost 20 years old and that the only solution was to find proper infrastructure in the areas. He appealed to the SAHRC to say it was an infringement of human rights.

He reiterated that the poor payment cycles were straining services, which would heighten anger in affected communities.

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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