Cape Town - The ANC Youth League members behind Monday’s porta-loo spill outside Premier Helen Zille’s office said they were “ready to be arrested” the minute they opened the first canister of raw sewage.
ANC proportional councillor and youth league member Loyiso Nkohla and former ANC councillor and banned league member Andile Lili led a group of protesters to the provincial legislature, where they emptied five porta-loos full of raw sewage outside 7 Wale Street before lunchtime.
The main entrance to the legislature was closed for more than an hour as cleaning staff hosed away the waste.
Nkohla and Lili arrived with the portable toilets in the back of an Audi around noon.
They walked to the legislature’s main entrance and emptied the canisters of sewage in full view of the police, who were seated behind a counter in the legislature’s foyer. The group left minutes later.
Lili said the spill was a “warning” and that thousands of informal dwellers would descend on the legislature in seven days to do “the real dump”.
“We will return with thousands of these bucket toilets next week and empty them around the legislature building,” Lili said.
“Zille must also be ready to be beaten with these toilets when she visits the townships. We’ve had enough of these toilets. We were ready to be arrested and will die for this.”
Nkohla said porta-loos in Philippi’s Brown’s Farm area had not been cleaned for weeks.
“It is unacceptable,” he said. “We had to do this to send a clear message.”
The ANC Youth League denied responsibility.
Mfuzo Zenzile, secretary of the league’s Dullah Omar (metro) region, said Lili was no longer a league member and that Nkohla would “be dealt with if he acted in his capacity as a youth league member”.
“We condemn this act,” Zenzile said. “The law must take its course.”
Zenzile added that residents of Philippi, Nyanga and Khayelitsha were “growing tired” of the city’s “non-delivery”.
“While we don’t condone these actions, we understand where the people are coming from,” he said.
“It is winter, people are cold and the toilets are not being cleaned. Not the city or the provincial government is offering solutions.”
Axolile Notywala of the Social Justice Coalition said yesterday’s incident was a “clear sign of the people’s frustration”.
“The authorities need to get their act together and start delivering on their promises,” he said.
“At the weekend, the city’s toilet-cleaning contractors had still not cleaned the portable loos in Philippi. These are the things that are causing protests on the N2 and acts like the one outside the premier’s office.”
Zille’s spokesman, Zak Mbhele, said the incident was “absolutely disgusting”.
He said a team from the premier’s office was analysing camera footage to identify the culprits “who, according to witnesses, are allegedly ANC Youth League members”.
“Once we have identified them, we will be pressing criminal charges,” Mbhele said.
“On May 23, the City of Cape Town was granted an interim interdict against seven identified ANC Youth League-linked residents and their supporters who spilled the contents of porta-loos on the N2 highway recently.
“As part of this interdict, these toilets (as city property) are not allowed to be removed, therefore this was a criminal act.”
Mbhele said the latest incident was another blatant example of the “ungovernability tactics” that the ANC Youth League and its cadres were planning to use in the run-up to next year’s election.
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