Toilets in disrepair cause a stink in Ekurhuleni

executive mayor in the spotlight after democratic alliance claims 750 toilets in tsakane township have been left incomplete or in a state of disrepair since at least 2008
mondli gungubele, executive mayor of ekurhuleni in gauteng, was under fire on monday over his council’s failure to complete and enclose a number of open toilets in the east rand township of tsakane.

shelley loe, leader of the democratic alliance in ekurhuleni, told a sitting of the metro council that 750 toilets had been left incomplete or in a state of disrepair since at least 2008, and that there was no running water or functioning taps in the tsakane extension 10 area.

"from the look of them, it seems to me that the project was totally abandoned by builders," ms loe told the council. "many have no toilets in them at all, the brick structures are incomplete or falling down, and there is no water in the pipes so even if a person could use a toilet, they are not flushable. many have no walls, doors or roofs."

according to ms loe, the toilets had been built under ntombi mekgwe, a former mayor of ekurhuleni who now heads the gauteng health department.

"i personally informed ekurhuleni mayor mondli gungubele of these open toilets on september 9. he promised me a response within three weeks," ms loe said. "despite sending letters to his office asking for a response, nothing has been forthcoming."

the da urged mr gungubele’s administration to take urgent action on the matter, failing which it would report the incident to the south african human rights commission.

earlier this year, ekurhuleni also made headlines for service delivery protests. in may, residents refused to use chemical toilets provided by the council and demanded pit latrines instead, while in october, residents of kwa-thema claimed electricity meters were installed in their homes by the municipality without first consulting them.

on monday, zweli dlamini, spokesman for the mayor, told business day online that mr gungubele "did not just sit on the matter", but had asked the city’s water services department to investigate the problem.

he also said the area was being provided with toilets after a "slight delay" in the roll-out of the project when eskom, the national power utility, could not get the area’s sewer pump station to function as the toilets were still being built.

mr dlamini added it had only been a delay of months, not three years as the da claimed.

"the contractor then decided to stop with the work of building more toilets in the affected area, and move to another section while the power issue was being addressed," said mr dlamini. "while this was unfolding, certain residents started vandalising the toilet structures in extension 10, removing the doors, roofs and windows. in actual fact about 50 toilets are affected."

he said now that the pump had been fixed, all the current toilets were being repaired and the remaining ones were being built – a project the municipality hoped to conclude by the end of november.

moyagabo maake