/ 12 May 2011

Toilet wars

There are no open toilets in Merafong municipality, mayor Papi Molokwane said, reacting to an allegation there were unenclosed toilets in Khutsong.

There are no unenclosed toilets in the Merafong municipality, mayor Papi Molokwane said on Wednesday, reacting to an allegation that there were open toilets in Khutsong.

“There is no such thing as open toilets here, development was done 10 years ago.”

He said in a telephone interview that residents had first been allocated stands, then toilets were built followed by houses.

Petros Sithole — the IFP chairperson in Gauteng — said on Wednesday he had stumbled on to unenclosed toilets in Khutsong Ward Three, near Carletonville, during his election campaign in the West Rand.

Khutsong falls under the ANC-controlled Merafong municipality.

“This latest abuse of the basic rights of the people of Khutsong is proof that the ANC has utterly failed the people of Khutsong,” he said.

“Not only has the ANC fallen behind its service delivery targets in terms of the provision of water, electricity and sanitation, its internal power struggle and greed have brought municipalities across the country to the brink of collapse and bankruptcy.”

Sithole said his party was calling on the Human Rights Commission to launch an investigation into the situation in Khutsong.

“We are not the kind of people who sling mud at others to make ourselves look good, but there is a time and a place to take a hard look at the people asking for your vote, and ask whether they are the right people for the job.”

Molokwane said he had visited Ward Three and found no unenclosed toilets in the area, but if there were toilets which had been damaged, residents should inform the municipality.

“The municipality will help repair such toilets.”

The ANC took the Democratic Alliance to task over open toilets in Makhaza and Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, but it was then revealed the ANC-led Moqhaka municipality in the Free State had not enclosed toilets in the Rammulotsi township near Viljoenskroen since 2003

ANC mayor stood to profit from open toilets
Meanwhile, the Mail & Guardian revealed on Wednesday that the ANC mayor of a Free State municipality personally profited from the construction of unenclosed toilets at the centre of a new political storm.

The mayor of Moqhaka Municipality near Viljoenskroon in the Free State is a director of the company that the municipality contracted to build the nearly 2 000 unenclosed toilets, according to sources in the community.

The M&G has learnt that Mantebu Mokgosi, who became mayor in 2006, was a ward councillor at the time that the contract was awarded in 2006 to her company, Danteb Building Construction, which she owns with her husband, Daniel Mokgosi.

According to sources in Rammolutsi, the contract was valued at R1,6-million.

A Cipro search shows that Danteb Building Construction is currently in a deregistration process.

The source says that the construction in the township of Rammolutsi was done so badly, that the municipality had to call in a second company to rebuild the toilets. However, the toilets remain unenclosed.

It is believed that her son Vincent oversaw the contruction of the toilets in 2006 and 2007. Sources have told the M&G that “he was there overseeing it and was very much involved”.

Under investigation
When the M&G contacted Mokgosi, she said, “Everything is under investigation; I will respond after the report,” before hanging up the phone.

She was referring to a report compiled by the Human Rights Commission, on the ANC’s failure to provide adequate sanitation facilities in the municipalities under its control.

The report is expected to be released this week.

As local elections approach, a ping-pong battle has broken out between the Democratic Alliance and the ANC, with each pointing fingers at the other for the bad state of sanitation around the country.

Rammolutsi is only one of several municipalities emerging as having had unenclosed toilets for over a decade.

Basic human right
The ANC in Gauteng said on Wednesday evening it believed that access to decent sanitation was a basic human right and that no citizen must be denied this right.

“The bucket system was used by successive apartheid governments to dehumanise our people. The ANC has in the last 17 years made strides in eradicating this system in many communities across the province,” said spokesperson Nkenke Kekana.

He said where permanent structures could not be built, especially in informal settlements, alternative sanitation systems were provided.

“The ANC calls on all communities who are experiencing problems related to the provision of decent sanitation to urgently call their local councils and ANC representatives to resolve the issue as a matter of urgency.”

Kekana said the ANC was committed to speedily attend to all such problems brought to their attention.

The provision of sanitation was about human dignity and therefore the ANC would take drastic action against any council under their control which did not do so.

“Unlike the DA, the ANC will never justify nor defend the non-provision of decent sanitation to our people,” said Kekana.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) urged politicians to stop squabbling about unenclosed toilets and focus on jobs, poverty alleviation and infrastructure.

Fedusa was appalled at the ongoing toilet saga that had received considerable media coverage this week, general secretary Dennis George said in a statement.

“Instead of expending energy and time on pointing out the faults in each other’s municipalities, political officials should be developing solutions and strategies to combat poverty, unemployment and poor infrastructure.”

In another statement on Wednesday, the Congress of the People called on all South Africans to “expose the ANC for its failure to provide sanitation and for feeding the public lies instead”. – Sapa and Staff reporter