Prudence Brink
It’s midday and Sannicare contract workers Prudence Brink, Carmelita Johnson and Francious Beukes are having lunch in 29°C heat, sitting on empty portable toilets in front of the depot at Airport Industria where thousands of toilets are cleaned daily.
The smell is unbearable and there are flies all around them that they chase away during their meal. But, says Brink, there is nowhere else to have lunch.
“I do not have any other choice than forcing myself to get used to it,” she says.
The toilets are collected from informal settlements on Tuesdays and Thursdays and cleaned at the Borcherd’s Quarry depot at Airport Industria on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Brink, Johnson, Beukes and their colleagues work for Sannicare, which has a portable toilet cleaning contract with the City of Cape Town. They spend the whole day emptying and washing the portable toilets, sluicing the contents and the dirty water down a drain in the floor of the depot. At the end of their shift they have to leave without taking a shower.
There are showers at the depot, but the City of Cape Town reserves these for municipal employees and keeps them locked. There is a canteen at the depot, but it is for City council employees and contract workers are not allowed to eat there. In addition, the Sannicare workers have to use a chemical toilet.
Not our responsibility
The City says it is the responsibility of Sannicare to provide toilets, showers, a canteen and other facilities for its employees.
“When you are working inside it gets all messy, you get wet all over,” says Nomsa Vundle. “Sometimes I work until 3pm and as soon as I am finished working, I run to the preschool for my child with the smell from the depot on me because I don’t get a chance to go home first for a bath.”
Many of the Sannicare workers do not have running water at home.
The workers are supplied with protective clothing but say they have nowhere to change, so they wear the gear over their clothes, which get wet and dirty.
“I feel like my right to privacy is violated. I’m an adult and someone’s mother,” says a worker who preferred not to give her name. “To dress in public … I have been doing it for a few months but I can’t get used to it,” she says.
The mayoral committee member for utility services, councillor Ernest Sonnenberg, said the contract workers had vandalised the City’s facilities “on numerous occasions”.
“As well as stealing taps, they have broken through walls and set doors alight.”
He said it was up to Sannicare to provide facilities and suggested that staff members report health and safety problems to their managers. Meanwhile, he said, the City would instruct Sannicare that no staff should eat or drink on any type of toilet while taking a break.
One of the contract workers confirmed that there had been vandalism at the depot.
The contract workers earn R120 per eight-hour shift and work three days a week.
Sannicare operations manager Garnett Jefferies said the company had offered to repair the Airport Industria showers and toilets, and maintain them. But the City had refused, he said. The City had also refused to allow Sannicare to provide mobile showers, because of a lack of space.
Jefferies said there was one shower for employees at Sannicare’s Parow site but that this was not convenient for the Airport Industria employees.
“We are still waiting for the City of Cape Town to give us permission to use the current facilities that are at Borcherd’s Quarry or to allow us to put up our own mobile facilities,” he said.
This article was originally published on GroundUp.