ID CAPE TOWN CALLS ON CITY TO INVESTIGATE "LUDICROUS" KHAYELITSHA TOILET "DEAL"

Councillor Herron submits motion to Housing Portfolio Committee

Brett Herron, ID Councillor and Spokesperson for the ID Caucus in the City of Cape Town, today submitted an urgent motion to the City's Housing Portfolio Committee, on which he serves as a member, proposing that the housing directorate provide a full report on the circumstances that led to the City installing the open air toilets in Khayelitsha that have led to community outrage and a complaint against the City to the Human Rights Commission.

According to media reports the City of Cape Town initially wanted to build one toilet per five households as a temporary measure, whilst state-subsidised houses were being built, where-after the toilets would be included in the houses.

The reports suggest that the community agreed with the City to enclose their own toilets with walls and roofing if the City provided one toilet per household. Herron, accompanied by fellow ID Councillors Cynthia Clayton and June Frans visited the area yesterday where they inspected the open air toilets and spoke to some of the residents.

‘We were shocked by the impact of a row of toilets completely in the open, outside the shacks and right next to the road - it would be impossible to use the toilets we saw, day or night, privately,' Mr Herron says.

‘We have read the media reports that these toilets were built like this with the agreement of the community. However, the residents we spoke to were completely unaware of this agreement and appeared bewildered by the installation of toilets without walls,' says Herron.

‘We would like to see a full report on how this situation came about and would like the opportunity to interrogate and debate this decision - hence we have submitted a motion to the Housing Portfolio Committee calling for this report urgently.

‘We do not want to prejudge what the report will say, but we have very strong reservations about the City entering into an agreement like this with a poor and vulnerable community,' Herron says.

‘On the face of it, this purported deal is ludicrous and the situation of open air toilets should have been foreseeable. We can understand the residents' complaints and completely see how using these open air toilets is embarrassing and undignified.

‘We are also concerned that now that a complaint has been made to the Human Rights Commission, the City is suddenly able to provide material for enclosing the toilets. It raises the question as to why this wasn't offered in the first place.'

Councillor Herron's motion proposes that -

"The Housing Directorate provide this committee with a full and urgent report, for the next portfolio committee meeting, on the circumstances that led to the City providing toilets to the Makhaza community in Khayalitsha without enclosures and roofs - leaving some of these toilets completely exposed."

The motion should appear on the Agenda of the next meeting of the Housing Committee, which will be on 1 February 2010.

Statement issued by Cllr Brett Herron, Independent Democrats, January 27 2010

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