Hundreds marched in the rain for clean and dry toilets. Photo by Pharie Sefali.
25 June 2013
More than 300 people marched in the Cape Town city centre today to demand better sanitation in informal settlements.
Protesters we spoke also wanted an end to the poti-poti (portable flush) toilets in Khayelitsha, claiming they are undignified.
The Social justice Coalition (SJC) marched to Mayor Patricia de Lille’s office. Their main demands were that the mayor present a sanitation plan in two weeks and that implementation of it begins within two months.
General Secretary of the SJC, Phumeza Mlungwana, said that they came to march peacefully and gathered outside the Civic Centre to ask the mayor for something that is rightfully theirs according to the South African Constitution. She said, “The SJC has engaged with the City of Cape Town and other levels of government on a sustained basis for more than three years to improve sanitation provision, particularly to improve monitoring and maintenance of existing facilities. There have been some significant improvements, but much remains to be done and progress is happening too slowly.” Mlungwana also demanded that the SJC should be involved in the development and implementation of the sanitation plan.
“The City of Cape Town municipality has placed more than 11,000 toilets in different areas in Khayelitsha. People are complaining that the toilets are not being cleaned. Nor are they safe and dignified,” said Axolile Notywala of the SJC.
Mandla Qina, a janitor who is employed by the municipality to clean the toilets addressed the crowd and said “Siyamcapukela ugovernment ngoba usi jonga nje nge pigs. Basijonga ingathi size zinja kwaye ingathi asibalulekanga empilweni” [We hate the government because they look at us as if we are pigs. They see us as dogs as if we are not important in life.] He further said that all the government wants from the people is votes but they as citizens do not get anything in return. He ended his speech by saying, “We demands masks while we clean these toilets.”
“People use bushes as toilets rather than use the toilets provided by the mayor because they are scared that they might get sick from using those toilets. So we as parents are worried that our children get sick and at times the children play near these toilets,” Nomalinde Xoeie from Equal Education said.
Lwandiso Stofile, a representative from the mayor’s office, accepted the memorandum. While he was signing for it, the crowd shouted in Xhosa at him saying, “You should know better because you are from Khayelitsha. You should understand us better than them.”