THE Western Cape High Court will on Monday order the interim provision of toilets in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, but an applicant in the case is not happy.
“This is what we don’t want,” complained Andile Lili, local ANC Youth League treasurer, at the end of a site inspection yesterday.
Lili addressed his gripe to residents, advocates and lawyers in Makhaza for the inspection.
While Judge Nathan Erasmus was inspecting a structure offered to residents by the city – the same kind as those that the youth league and residents destroyed earlier in the year when the City of Cape Town tried to enclose open toilets – Lili said:
“It is better when you are just looking and not using. It is only for pigs like us.”
Sanitation in the Makhaza settlement was yesterday subjected to unprecedented scrutiny as a large contingent of lawyers, advocates and Judge Erasmus gathered information to be used in guiding interim relief, and as evidence during the case, which is likely to be argued early next year.
Lili and two other Makhaza residents are asking the court to order that more than 1 300 installed toilets be enclosed with concrete, and that the city’s actions in reaching an alleged agreement – that the residents enclose these themselves – be ruled unconstitutional.
Whichever way the ultimate ruling goes – and it has already been said that it will probably go all the way to the Constitutional Court – it is likely to influence future developments, and policy and budgetary provisions countrywide.
Toilets at most homes had been enclosed by residents, many with concrete, while pipes protruded from some erven where unenclosed toilets had been removed.
Just one open and apparently unused toilet remained in a yard, and was meticulously scrutinised for future reference.
During the inspection, one senior advocate remarked to the Cape Argus: “If (only) something good can come out of this for all communities.”
Makhaza’s unenclosed toilets became a matter of national interest when violent protests around the issue spilled on to the N2 and politicians from all parties entered the fray.
One neglected sanitation issue on which the spotlight is sure to fall is the plight of the disabled.
Mbuyiseli Vellem, an elderly man in a wheelchair, showed how difficult it was to get into his outside toilet, which led the judge to ask how sanitation was provided for the disabled.
Later, Judge Erasmus asked whether the parties wanted to return to the court to argue the provision of sanitation to the infirm and disabled, before he drew up a second draft order.
The parties declined, saying they would comment on the draft before Monday, when the judge is expected to hand down a final order for interim relief.
Although the inspection was purely a fact-finding mission, lawyers and affected parties could not resist the temptation of scoring a pre-emptive point or two.
Norman Arendse, the lawyer for the Makhaza applicants, disapprovingly pointed out a toilet enclosed with timber and plywood.
“The same material the house is made of,” replied city manager of new housing Herman Steyn.
At a row of locked communal toilets, the judge halted Lili’s complaints over the condition of the toilets, demanding an answer only to the original question of how residents accessed them.
- Cape Argus
“This is what we don’t want,” complained Andile Lili, local ANC Youth League treasurer, at the end of a site inspection yesterday.
Lili addressed his gripe to residents, advocates and lawyers in Makhaza for the inspection.
While Judge Nathan Erasmus was inspecting a structure offered to residents by the city – the same kind as those that the youth league and residents destroyed earlier in the year when the City of Cape Town tried to enclose open toilets – Lili said:
“It is better when you are just looking and not using. It is only for pigs like us.”
Sanitation in the Makhaza settlement was yesterday subjected to unprecedented scrutiny as a large contingent of lawyers, advocates and Judge Erasmus gathered information to be used in guiding interim relief, and as evidence during the case, which is likely to be argued early next year.
Lili and two other Makhaza residents are asking the court to order that more than 1 300 installed toilets be enclosed with concrete, and that the city’s actions in reaching an alleged agreement – that the residents enclose these themselves – be ruled unconstitutional.
Whichever way the ultimate ruling goes – and it has already been said that it will probably go all the way to the Constitutional Court – it is likely to influence future developments, and policy and budgetary provisions countrywide.
Toilets at most homes had been enclosed by residents, many with concrete, while pipes protruded from some erven where unenclosed toilets had been removed.
Just one open and apparently unused toilet remained in a yard, and was meticulously scrutinised for future reference.
During the inspection, one senior advocate remarked to the Cape Argus: “If (only) something good can come out of this for all communities.”
Makhaza’s unenclosed toilets became a matter of national interest when violent protests around the issue spilled on to the N2 and politicians from all parties entered the fray.
One neglected sanitation issue on which the spotlight is sure to fall is the plight of the disabled.
Mbuyiseli Vellem, an elderly man in a wheelchair, showed how difficult it was to get into his outside toilet, which led the judge to ask how sanitation was provided for the disabled.
Later, Judge Erasmus asked whether the parties wanted to return to the court to argue the provision of sanitation to the infirm and disabled, before he drew up a second draft order.
The parties declined, saying they would comment on the draft before Monday, when the judge is expected to hand down a final order for interim relief.
Although the inspection was purely a fact-finding mission, lawyers and affected parties could not resist the temptation of scoring a pre-emptive point or two.
Norman Arendse, the lawyer for the Makhaza applicants, disapprovingly pointed out a toilet enclosed with timber and plywood.
“The same material the house is made of,” replied city manager of new housing Herman Steyn.
At a row of locked communal toilets, the judge halted Lili’s complaints over the condition of the toilets, demanding an answer only to the original question of how residents accessed them.
- Cape Argus
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