While Western Cape premier Helen Zille claims a deeper political conspiracy behind the "toilet wars", the Human Rights Commission found that her administration "violated the rights" of Khayelitsha residents by not enclosing the controversial loos.
Deputy head of the commission Pregs Govender yesterday ordered the DA-led City of Cape Town to reinstall the 51 toilets it removed this week.
Govender also wants the city to build brick and mortar enclosures, instead of the corrugated iron structures that were torn down by members of the ANC Youth League last week.
The commission will release a full report next week.
In her weekly newsletter as DA leader, Zille yesterday acknowledged upfront that such open toilets "are a serious affront to human dignity and cannot be condoned".
But she insisted that the truth about the unenclosed toilets had not been told.
She alleged that one of the ANC Youth League leaders who partook in smashing the toilet enclosures had been paid by the government to liaise with the community on a deal to provide the maximum amount of toilets from the available city budget. According to the agreement, families would erect their own enclosures.
"As usual, in war of any kind, truth is always the first casualty", she said.
Calling the saga "a messy situation", she said retrofitting services, such as of water and sewerage, was a complex task, given the density of the settlements.
"But the technical difficulties pale into insignificance compared to the social complexities of upgrading a densely populated informal settlement," said Zille.
"Inevitably, upgrading results in intense community conflict, as some people have to move to make way for service installation, and people vie for access to the jobs that upgrading offers.
"Usually, community conflict stalls delivery for many months, and often stops it altogether."
Zille said the contractors had employed "community liaison officers" to assist in finding consensus.
"In Silvertown, the officer was none other than ANC Youth League regional secretary, Andile Lili, who achieved notoriety when he was one of the group smashing the toilet enclosures in pursuit of the ANCYL's call to destroy infrastructure and make the City ungovernable", she alleged.
"In his paid position, Lili had played a key role in implementing an agreement that emerged from lengthy negotiations with the community about how to meet their priorities out of the available budget."
Lili in turn accused Zille of "just lying".
Asked for comment, he told Independent Newspapers he only liaised in a project to provide solar water geezers to the settlement.
"We in the Youth League stay in those communities, so she can't say we just hijacked the issue," Lili said.
Zille yesterday insisted that instead of the national norm of one toilet per five families, each household received a toilet on the condition that they would themselves enclose it, which 97 percent of the Silvertown beneficiaries did.
She said despite resistance from the other families, Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato decided that the city would enclose the 51 remaining toilets.
"By this time, the ANCYL had realised it was on to a good thing. Photos of unenclosed toilets had appeared in the media," Zille said.
"The ANCYL lost no time using this to 'prove' the lie that the DA treats black people with indignity, and developed a keen interest in ensuring the toilets remained open."
Zille also claimed that Cape Town's record of upgrading informal settlements is the best in the country despite a higher rate of urbanisation than anywhere in southern Africa.
She claims, however, that vandalism, theft and sabotage cost the city R80m of a R125m budget for water and sanitation facilities last year.
"For every R3 that the city spends of its annual budget for water and sanitation facilities in informal settlements, R2 is spent on repairs and replacement of vandalised or stolen infrastructure," she said.
"We have come to the conclusion that the best way to instil a sense of ownership and an ethos of respecting property, is for each family to contribute to the construction and maintenance of their own toilet. The perfect condition of the enclosed 'en suite' toilets in Silvertown is evidence of this."
Deputy head of the commission Pregs Govender yesterday ordered the DA-led City of Cape Town to reinstall the 51 toilets it removed this week.
Govender also wants the city to build brick and mortar enclosures, instead of the corrugated iron structures that were torn down by members of the ANC Youth League last week.
The commission will release a full report next week.
In her weekly newsletter as DA leader, Zille yesterday acknowledged upfront that such open toilets "are a serious affront to human dignity and cannot be condoned".
But she insisted that the truth about the unenclosed toilets had not been told.
She alleged that one of the ANC Youth League leaders who partook in smashing the toilet enclosures had been paid by the government to liaise with the community on a deal to provide the maximum amount of toilets from the available city budget. According to the agreement, families would erect their own enclosures.
"As usual, in war of any kind, truth is always the first casualty", she said.
Calling the saga "a messy situation", she said retrofitting services, such as of water and sewerage, was a complex task, given the density of the settlements.
"But the technical difficulties pale into insignificance compared to the social complexities of upgrading a densely populated informal settlement," said Zille.
"Inevitably, upgrading results in intense community conflict, as some people have to move to make way for service installation, and people vie for access to the jobs that upgrading offers.
"Usually, community conflict stalls delivery for many months, and often stops it altogether."
Zille said the contractors had employed "community liaison officers" to assist in finding consensus.
"In Silvertown, the officer was none other than ANC Youth League regional secretary, Andile Lili, who achieved notoriety when he was one of the group smashing the toilet enclosures in pursuit of the ANCYL's call to destroy infrastructure and make the City ungovernable", she alleged.
"In his paid position, Lili had played a key role in implementing an agreement that emerged from lengthy negotiations with the community about how to meet their priorities out of the available budget."
Lili in turn accused Zille of "just lying".
Asked for comment, he told Independent Newspapers he only liaised in a project to provide solar water geezers to the settlement.
"We in the Youth League stay in those communities, so she can't say we just hijacked the issue," Lili said.
Zille yesterday insisted that instead of the national norm of one toilet per five families, each household received a toilet on the condition that they would themselves enclose it, which 97 percent of the Silvertown beneficiaries did.
She said despite resistance from the other families, Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato decided that the city would enclose the 51 remaining toilets.
"By this time, the ANCYL had realised it was on to a good thing. Photos of unenclosed toilets had appeared in the media," Zille said.
"The ANCYL lost no time using this to 'prove' the lie that the DA treats black people with indignity, and developed a keen interest in ensuring the toilets remained open."
Zille also claimed that Cape Town's record of upgrading informal settlements is the best in the country despite a higher rate of urbanisation than anywhere in southern Africa.
She claims, however, that vandalism, theft and sabotage cost the city R80m of a R125m budget for water and sanitation facilities last year.
"For every R3 that the city spends of its annual budget for water and sanitation facilities in informal settlements, R2 is spent on repairs and replacement of vandalised or stolen infrastructure," she said.
"We have come to the conclusion that the best way to instil a sense of ownership and an ethos of respecting property, is for each family to contribute to the construction and maintenance of their own toilet. The perfect condition of the enclosed 'en suite' toilets in Silvertown is evidence of this."
- Pretoria News
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