Gap in Cape Town’s janitor contracts leaves communities living in filth

Residents have been cleaning these toilets in Mfuleni while they wait for the City of Cape Town to appoint new janitors. Photos: Vincent Lali

• The City of Cape Town’s Expanded Public Works Programme cleaner contracts ended in May.
• The municipality says new janitors will start in September.
• The City acknowledges a temporary gap in service, leaving communities with dirty toilets.

A delay in the City of Cape Town’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) contracts for new cleaners has left several communities with filthy toilets.

Olwethu Maphuthuma from Sinqawunqawu informal settlement in Mfuleni said there are 15 communal toilets and residents clean them after they use them. He said residents only clean inside the toilet stall they use, while the janitors used to clean the area around the toilets.

He said they leave one toilet open for passers-by, “otherwise, they will break the padlock to use the toilet”.

Pilingane said this has been the situation since May when the cleaners’ contracts expired.

“Residents don’t have disinfectants to clean the toilets, so they use their kids’ government grants to buy soap to clean them. They are supposed to buy food with the money,” she said.

At Lansdowne Road informal settlement in Khayelitsha, communal toilets have also not been serviced since May. When we visited, residents showed us blocked toilets.

Mfundokazi Vayeke said people defecate in buckets inside their shacks and empty them into toilet bowls or on a nearby field. She said residents have to walk carefully to the communal taps to avoid faeces on the ground.

Community leader Xolelwa Mjekula said some residents donate money to buy chemicals, while volunteers clean the toilets.

Councillor Zahid Badroodien, the mayco member for water and sanitation, said the previous cohort of cleaners had been on fixed-term EPWP contracts of 18 months. The new janitorial project for the 2026/27 financial year is in its final approval stages.

He said that before the previous janitorial contract cycle ended, the City decided to restructure the project model “to improve service effectiveness”.

“The City acknowledges the temporary gap in service while these recruitment processes are finalised. Recruitment is actively underway, subject to final approvals.

“New EPWP janitors are scheduled to be appointed and deployed by September 2026,” he said.

The City was also asked about waste management but had only responded to the janitorial issues at the time of publishing.

We have asked the City why it had no plan for janitorial services for the interim months. Its response will be added once received.

Plastic, nappies, food, clothes and other discarded items are piling up around Sinqawunqawu informal settlement in Mfuleni, Cape Town.

Waste piling up

Residents in Mfuleni told us they are also battling illegal dumping as uncollected rubbish including plastic bags, nappies, discarded food, clothes and other items is piling up around Sinqawunqawu informal settlement. When GroundUp recently visited the area, rubbish was piled up against a wall next to a row of communal toilets.

Community leader Pheziwe Pilingane said residents dump their rubbish because the municipality has not provided rubbish bags since the cleaners’ contracts ended months ago.

“Rubbish collectors used to distribute rubbish bags to each shack, and the residents would dump them in a shipping container,” she said.

“Now, no one collects rubbish here. It smells.”

Nokwanele Gwadiso, a mother of two, said the rotting waste attracts flies. “When cooking, you will find your pot filled with flies in the morning if you haven’t placed the food in the fridge,” she said. “I kill them with a fly killer, but they return again. We can’t keep them out of our shacks.”

Gwadiso relies on two child support grants. She said she can’t afford to buy rubbish bags and disinfectant.

She and other residents sometimes pile rubbish together and burn it, but it soon builds up again, she said.

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