Cape Town - The Social Justice Coalition has given the City of Cape Town four weeks to respond to its damning social audit and demand for a city-wide sanitation plan, or it will take legal action against the metro.
According to the findings of the SJC’s social audit of toilets in Khayelitsha, released on Wednesday, more than half of the 500 communal flush toilets inspected were dirty outside and almost half were so filthy inside that they could not be used.
This meant that toilet pans were blocked with excrement or rubbish, or that seats were so dirty that they could not used.
The SJC has repeatedly asked the city to provide an implementation plan for the janitorial programme which it said is costing ratepayers R60 million.
But the city has hit back, accusing the SJC of refusing to work directly with it to improve conditions in informal settlements.
“Why does the SJC not report faults when they occur, but rather wait to compile ‘dossiers’ with out-of-date data for maximum self-serving publicity?” said Ernest Sonnenberg, the mayoral committee member for utility services.
According to the SJC, one in four of the toilets inspected during the week-long audit in July were not working.
Out of these, 15 percent were blocked, 12 percent had no water and six percent no longer had a sewage pipe.
Although janitors are responsible for fixing minor problems, the social audit found that most of the toilets needed major or minor repairs. These included problems such as broken cistern covers, missing or broken toilet handles, missing water pipes or toilet pans and 76 of the 528 toilets had a broken or missing door.
The SJC reported that most of the janitors employed by the city had a contract and worked regular hours. Almost all of the 31 janitors interviewed lived in the section in which they worked.
However, the SJC found that the janitors lacked the equipment they needed to do an effective job.
None of the 31 had water pliers and only six had toilet brushes.
The audit also raised serious concerns about the safety of the janitors working in the area. Only four had received any health and safety training, while six had not had any training.
Most of the janitors - 87 percent - were not being inoculated against diseases.
“This would indicate that the (city) has not prioritised inoculation and that the vast majority of janitors have been exposed to the risk of disease.”
Some residents clean the toilets themselves, because of the random cleaning done by some of the janitors.
The SJC contended that, in the absence of a clear plan, the city’s janitorial service had been “haphazard, poorly implemented and regularly ineffective”.
SJC project manager Axolile Notywala said residents were not consulted when the city started the service in 2012, and many now believed that it was not operating effectively.
Notywala said the SJC has asked the city to release its janitorial service plan within the next four weeks, and also respond to the recommendations of the SA Human Rights Commission’s sanitation report that highlighted gross shortcomings in the provision of basic services in informal areas.
Responding to the city’s accusations that the SJC was targeting the metro, which provides residents with universal access to water and “adequate” sanitation, Notywala said: “We know the issues exist elsewhere, but our people are in Khayelitsha”. He said a sanitation plan could be used as a model in informal settlements in other areas.
Notywala said the SJC was still willing to work with the city on finding solutions.
But Sonnenberg said the SJC had yet to apologise for the “inaccurate” information circulated at a previous audit on area cleaning. Given the SJC’s “past disingenuous conduct and fundamental lack of understanding of the programme”, it would not be included in the city’s own assessment of its janitorial service that would determine the future of this pilot project.
anel.lewis@inl.co.za
- Cape Argus
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