Rubbish, human faeces float around in Cape

Pools of stagnant water carpeted with rotting rubbish and rimmed by human faeces greeted Cape Town city council officials on Thursday during an inspection of the Kosovo informal settlement on the Cape Flats.

The inspection followed a visit on Wednesday by city mayor Helen Zille, who said afterwards that the situation there had reached crisis proportions and that she had ordered an emergency clean-up.

The non-removal of refuse in the closely-packed settlement stems from conflict between residents of Kosovo and neighbouring settlements over who should get jobs on a cleanup contract.

Mayoral committee member for utility services Lionel Roelf said during Thursday's visit that a contractor had already been hired and was being paid, but was unable to start work because of the feuding.

'We've got to step in'
At the weekend a council refuse removal team that was sent in was stoned and chased away.

"We as the city council cannot allow that this situation carries on," Roelf said. "We've got to step in."

He said he was setting up a meeting with political leaders, including ward councillors, which would probably take place on Friday, and which he hoped would lead to an amicable solution.

"I haven't seen worse than what I've seen today... this definitely needs to be addressed because it's a health risk," he said.

Pools of water left by the recent heavy rains in the city lapped only metres away from shacks.

Plastic bags full of rubbish floated on top of the water, some spilling their rotting contents into it, while human faeces and a dead rat lay on the bank of the largest pool.

In other places, piles of rubbish simply lay rotting in heaps.

Shack dweller Cynthia Ntsele said she was not very happy with the rubbish, and would like to see it cleared up.

However that would not solve her biggest problem, the wetness of the land on which her shack was built, and the fact that it filled with water during heavy rains.

The city's acting director of health Dr Soraya Elloker said her department was going to test the stagnant water for diseases such as cholera or typhoid. - Sapa