ALMOST 8,000 families are still using the bucket toilet system despite the government's promise four years ago to eradicate it by 2007.
Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale made the admission in a written parliamentary reply to the Minority Front last week.
And what's more, the government has not made any progress since May this year, when it tabled the very same figures to Parliament.
Sexwale said 109 families in Eastern Cape, 7,179 in Free State and 627 in Northern Cape were still using the much-hated buckets.
These figures are only for those citizens living in "formal settlements". Otherwise thousands of other people living in shacks in informal settlements still use buckets.
Families in unrecognised informal settlements were never included in the government's original plan to eradicate 252,000 bucket toilets. These families were to be first moved to formal housing.
But it is not clear if Sexwale's figures are reliable. In August Leon de Villiers, DA caucus leader of the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, said 55,000 families were using the bucket system in that city.
But in 2006 then Public Services and Administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said there were only 45,000 bucket toilets remaining in the country.
Sexwale said the delay was partly because existing sewerage plants could not handle more waste.
In parts of Free State, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape, there was no adequate water supply to set up flushing toilets, Sexwale said.
Municipalities had also had problems "excavating hard rocks" to lay pipes, he said.
- Sowetan
Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale made the admission in a written parliamentary reply to the Minority Front last week.
And what's more, the government has not made any progress since May this year, when it tabled the very same figures to Parliament.
Sexwale said 109 families in Eastern Cape, 7,179 in Free State and 627 in Northern Cape were still using the much-hated buckets.
These figures are only for those citizens living in "formal settlements". Otherwise thousands of other people living in shacks in informal settlements still use buckets.
Families in unrecognised informal settlements were never included in the government's original plan to eradicate 252,000 bucket toilets. These families were to be first moved to formal housing.
But it is not clear if Sexwale's figures are reliable. In August Leon de Villiers, DA caucus leader of the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, said 55,000 families were using the bucket system in that city.
But in 2006 then Public Services and Administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said there were only 45,000 bucket toilets remaining in the country.
Sexwale said the delay was partly because existing sewerage plants could not handle more waste.
In parts of Free State, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape, there was no adequate water supply to set up flushing toilets, Sexwale said.
Municipalities had also had problems "excavating hard rocks" to lay pipes, he said.
- Sowetan
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