Toilet pushed over with woman inside
Khayelitsha residents clean up area and ask SJC to take court action
Nosisi Mbovane from CT Informal Settlement in Khayelitsha Site C said someone pushed over a Mshengu toilet while she was inside. She said she was lucky; the toilet had been cleaned minutes before she used it. She only got wet from the water in the toilet.
“I don’t want to think of what was going to happen if the toilet was full,” she said.
She and other community members are demanding better infrastructure. Mbovane said that the Mshengu toilets fall over when it is very windy; they need to be cemented at the base.
Residents reported the inadequate infrastructure to the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), which is now preparing to take the matter to court early next year.
The SJC’s Axolile Notywala said there is testimony from community members who live in Nkanini and CT Informal Settlement. “We demand the City of Cape Town build proper infrastructure, toilets for both these informal settlements and get rid of Mshengu and pota-pota toilets,” he said.
On Friday, around 30 SJC members in CT Informal Settlement cleaned the area. They said they are tired of living in a dirty area and want clean and safe toilets. They removed garbage around shacks and cleaned the dump site next to Mshengu toilets and the wet land just behind the toilets. Garbage was collected and placed in blue plastic bags for City workers to collect.
Mbovane said the City contractors do not clean the narrow passages between the shacks. “This is what we can do in the meantime. Hopefully SJC will be able to assist us in getting proper toilets,” she said.
Thozama Mngcongo from the SJC said the Mshengu toilets were not safe, especially for women. She said what was meant to be a temporary measure had become a permanent feature of the informal settlement.
GroundUp asked the City of Cape Town if it was possible to install flush toilets in Nkanini and CT Informal Settlement. City Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services Alderman Ernest Sonnenberg said: “The question raised is currently subject to litigation and as such the City is unfortunately not in a position to respond at this stage.”
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