News / Africa
South Africa's un-enclosed toilets unlawful
29 Apr 2011 at 13:44hrs | Views
High Court Judge Nathan Erasmus has found that the City of Cape Town acted unlawfully in providing unenclosed toilets to the residents of Makhaza informal settlement in Cape Town.
The Makhaza toilet row has been one of the ANC's strongest electioneering issues in Cape Town and everywhere that the Democratic Alliance has taken its "Cape Town story" about service excellence.
Helen Zille, the leader of the DA, said in a statement she accepted the ruling, including the judge's order to enclose the toilets.
"We have tried to do this on several previous occasions and each time enclosures were destroyed by the ANC Youth League. We will, however, try again," she said.
Read the full judgement
ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who was in court for the ruling, regularly cites the open toilets as evidence that the city's DA leaders "hate blacks".
The ANC set up a van outside the court and officers had roped off a section of the pavement, but there were only media reporters and photographers there by the time the case started.
About 60 Makhaza residents arrived later in a bus.
The City Council claims to have struck a deal with residents of the Makhaza settlement in 2009. It said the council agreed to install a toilet outside every informal dwelling instead of the standard one for every five homes. In return, the residents undertook to enclose the toilets themselves.
Residents enclosed 1 265 of the toilets with structures ranging from sacking to corrugated iron, but 51 families left theirs open, saying they could not afford to enclose them.
After it became known that some residents were using toilets in the open and the ANC began to campaign around the issue, the city enclosed the remaining toilets with corrugated iron structures, but these were torn down in protests organised by the ANC Youth League, who said only concrete or brick would do.
The city retaliated by removing the unenclosed toilets entirely.
The South African Human Rights Commission investigated the reported construction of toilets without walls in the informal settlement on the edge of Khayelitsha and found the City Council had violated the guaranteed right to dignity.
The council ordered the city to replace the facilities it had removed and to enclose them. The council is appealing against the order.
In the meanwhile, however, the local ANC went to court to challenge the validity of the alleged deal, saying that it had never happened and that even if it had, it would have been unlawful.
The Makhaza toilet row has been one of the ANC's strongest electioneering issues in Cape Town and everywhere that the Democratic Alliance has taken its "Cape Town story" about service excellence.
Helen Zille, the leader of the DA, said in a statement she accepted the ruling, including the judge's order to enclose the toilets.
"We have tried to do this on several previous occasions and each time enclosures were destroyed by the ANC Youth League. We will, however, try again," she said.
Read the full judgement
ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who was in court for the ruling, regularly cites the open toilets as evidence that the city's DA leaders "hate blacks".
The ANC set up a van outside the court and officers had roped off a section of the pavement, but there were only media reporters and photographers there by the time the case started.
About 60 Makhaza residents arrived later in a bus.
The City Council claims to have struck a deal with residents of the Makhaza settlement in 2009. It said the council agreed to install a toilet outside every informal dwelling instead of the standard one for every five homes. In return, the residents undertook to enclose the toilets themselves.
Residents enclosed 1 265 of the toilets with structures ranging from sacking to corrugated iron, but 51 families left theirs open, saying they could not afford to enclose them.
After it became known that some residents were using toilets in the open and the ANC began to campaign around the issue, the city enclosed the remaining toilets with corrugated iron structures, but these were torn down in protests organised by the ANC Youth League, who said only concrete or brick would do.
The city retaliated by removing the unenclosed toilets entirely.
The South African Human Rights Commission investigated the reported construction of toilets without walls in the informal settlement on the edge of Khayelitsha and found the City Council had violated the guaranteed right to dignity.
The council ordered the city to replace the facilities it had removed and to enclose them. The council is appealing against the order.
In the meanwhile, however, the local ANC went to court to challenge the validity of the alleged deal, saying that it had never happened and that even if it had, it would have been unlawful.
Source - Sapa
