Sexwale must answer for 2,2 million sanitation backlog

In a reply to a DA Parliamentary question, the Minister of Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale has revealed that there are 2,278 million households in South Africa without toilets. He further reveals that it is unlikely that these households will receive their toilets by December 2014, as per his Department's target.

This is an utter disgrace. 

Minister Sexwale is violating the right to dignity of every single household he has failed to provide with adequate sanitation.

This situation requires drastic intervention in Parliament. I will therefore write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Beauty Dambuza, requesting that she summon Minister Sexwale to Parliament to:

• Present a full report on the progress and findings of the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela-led sanitation task team established in September 2011, and outline the steps he is taking to implement their recommendations;
• Present the progress of his Department's ‘Water and Sanitation Master Plan';
• Provide a strategy to ensure South Africans are provided with basic sanitation while the Department's Master Plan is being developed and implemented;
• Declare a commitment to the Department's December 2014 sanitation eradication target or provide a revised one in reason.

The DA will do everything it can to ensure that the Minister and his Department are held accountable and that he delivers on his mandate to provide South Africans with adequate sanitation.

Statement issued by Stevens Mokgalapa MP, DA Shadow Minister of Human Settlements, May 7 2013

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