Somebody must take responsibility for the open toilets in Viljoenskroon, in the Free State, ANC Youth League president Julius Malema said on Tuesday.
“Heads must roll,” he said while inspecting an open toilet in Fallrock.
Malema said no municipalities should provide open toilets. It should not even cross their minds, he said.
Malema said that if a municipality did not have enough money to build a fully-enclosed toilet, it should not even begin.
He said that even in an ANC-led municipality, the party’s leadership condemned the practice.
Money must be found
Malema said there had to be money to be found somewhere to enclose the open toilets in the Viljoenskroon community.
Referring to the owner of one of the open toilets he inspected, Malema said: “This old woman must say that the ANC was here and that her plight will be taken care of.
“They [the toilets] will be closed.”
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, who arrived in a big, black Mercedes-Benz, said municipal officials had explained that the toilets would be closed in phases.
In the areas where there were open toilets, building materials such as sand, bricks and steel frame doors lay in the streets.
Inhumane
“We condemn open toilets. It’s inhumane,” said Mbalula.
He said no human being could live that way. “There’s no privacy, no humanity and no dignity.”
Mbalula and Malema were accompanied by ANC heavyweight Tony Yengeni, who said that the ANC’s national working committee, saw a report on the Viljoenskroon situation on Monday.
“There’s no excuse for this. People in the municipality must take full responsibility.”
Yengeni said the ANC could not condemn others for doing something and allow people in its own camp to behave the same way. — Sapa