Press Release
25 August 2010Makhaza: uneclosed toilets

1.The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) welcomes and applauds the decision by the Cape Town City Manager, Achmat Ebrahim, to launch an investigation into the building of the unenclosed toilets in Makhaza, Khayelitsha (“Cape council probes decision on open toilets”, 24 August 2010 Cape Times). We hope that this decision will lead to a speedy resolution of this unhappy debacle, and that the findings of the Human Rights Commission will be adhered to.

2.From the onset the SJC has been calling for better consultation between the City of Cape Town and the residents of Makhaza and hopes that the City will take up Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s offer of mediating this process and move forward with these discussions.

3.In calling for the investigation Grant Pascoe, mayoral committee member for social development, refers to Section 9 of the Water Services Act, which states that "the minimum standard for basic sanitation services is a toilet which is safe, reliable, environmentally sound, easy to keep clean, provides privacy and protection against the weather".

On Monday 23 August Archbishop of Cape Town the Most Reverend Dr Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and Chairperson of the Western Cape Religious Leaders Forum (WCRFL), will lead a group of senior religious leaders in a ‘prayerful solidarity visit’ to Khayelitsha. The religious leaders from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i and African Traditional communities will be escorted by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) on an assessment of sanitation, including toilet, facilities in RR Section and Makhaza, and will listen to residents affected by inadequate sanitation.
The visit will begin in RR Section, one of Khayelitsha’s poorest and most underdeveloped informal settlements, to assess the provision of sanitation services. They will then go to Makhaza to review the situation with the unenclosed toilets, originally inspected by the Archbishop on Tuesday 8 June. The visit will conclude with prayers in Makhaza for those affected by the consequences of inadequate sanitation.

Upon first visiting the site of the unenclosed toilets the Archbishop wrote an open letter to the Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Dan Plato, urging him to acknowledge serious flaws in the process and adhere to the recommendations made in the recent Human Rights Commission findings. He suggested that a public meeting needed to be called and offered his personal assistance as a mediator. The SJC welcomes the Archbishop’s dedication to resolving the current impasse.

A free press is essential to democracy, transparency and the attainment of equality

We are organisations that campaign for social justice. The success of our work is dependent on respect for the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. The right to free expression and freedom of the press and other media are essential components of democracy. That is why they are contained in the Bill of Rights. They are one of the essential means by which all people in South Africa, especially the vulnerable, exploited and poor, can hold government and the powerful private business sector to account.

This week Mzilikazi wa Afrika, a Sunday Times journalist, was arrested in Rosebank Johannesburg. The circumstances, manner and cause of his arrest all seem to point to intimidation by the state and attempts to suppress freedom of expression.

The arrest follows the exposure by the Sunday Times of questionable dealings by the National Police Commissioner, Bheki Cele. It comes during a national debate over proposed legislation to curtail press freedom, i.e. proposals for a new Protection of Information Act, changes to the Criminal Procedure Act and the ANC's proposals to establish a media tribunal.

We therefore unequivocally condemn the arrest of wa Afrika.

The media in South Africa, as anywhere else in the world, is very powerful and influential. We are not blind to its many shortcomings. The quality of journalism in South Africa is often mediocre. Newspapers, magazines and television sometimes make serious errors, permit unethical advertising and sometimes make false charges against individuals.

We are concerned that the main media houses are overly concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations and consequently primarily represent the interests of a relatively small affluent portion of the population, thereby paying insufficient attention to the interests of poor and working class people.

Raw sewage swamps a street in RR section, where sanitation facilities are often dysfunctional or simply non-existent1) DEATHLY EFFECTS OF NO TOILETS

She plunges her hands in and out of the drum and in one smooth movement removes a dripping item of clothing, wrings the water out and gives it a shake before gingerly making her way across her tiny yard where she stretches skyward to peg it to the washing line.

She repeats this a number of times, every time stepping on strategically placed rocks and a makeshift wooden bridge to reach the washing line. She stands on her tippy toes her fulsome frame in a brown shwe-shwe skirt and orange polo neck. Amid the fluttering, colourful washing drying in the south-easter, she cuts an attractive picture against the stark black and white of her shack and Table Mountain in the background.

However, the picture is far from pretty. Nozakhe Thethafuthi has good reason for not walking along the path to the washing line – her shack and yard is regularly flooded with raw sewage from a nearby pipe which blocks and then floods its contents into her surroundings.

Thethafuthi claims that sewerage first started flowing out from two manholes around her home in the winter of 2006. She has been forced to build a moat around her house in an attempt to relay the sewage to the swamp behind her shack. The effluent in the swamp is channeled to the ocean.

The Most Reverend Dr Archbishop Thabo Makgoba speaks to residents of MakhazaOn Tuesday 8 June the SJC met with The Most Reverend Dr Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, regarding our mutual concern for the spiralling situation in Makhaza. Below is the letter submitted from his office on Tuesday to the Mayor of Cape Town, Premier of the Western Cape, and representatives of National Government.

In this letter the Archbishop calls for:

1. The Mayor to commit to adhering to the recommendations made by the Human Rights Commission;
2. The Mayor to acknowledge that there were serious flaws in the Makhaza arrangement;
3. That all relevant parties sit down to discuss how best to implement the HRC recommendations;
4. That a community meeting be held, which the Archbishop would be willing to chair.

The SJC welcomes the Archbishop’s call to put the needs of the community first, and the need to resolve the current impasse speedily. We feel that he is a respected and non-biased community leader, and as such is best placed to serve as a mediator. We urge the Mayor and the Premier to accept the Archbishop's proposal.

__________________________________________________________________________

TCM/sm
June 8, 2010
Attention: Mr. Dan Plato
Mayor, City of Cape Town
Attention: Ms. Helen Zille
Premier, Western Cape
Attention: Mr. Sicelo Shiceka
Minister, National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Attention: Ms. Buyelwa Sonjica

SAHRC
SOUTH AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
PRESS STATEMENT
4 June 2010

Findings of the South African Human Rights Commission on a complaint lodged by the ANC Youth League against the City of Cape Town on the alleged violation of human dignity by the City in constructing toilets without enclosures.

These are the Commission's findings and recommendations. Please find the report in its entirety below.

FINDINGS

1.The City violated the right to dignity as envisaged by section 10 of the Constitution by not enclosing the toilets. The City ought to have ensured that the rights of all were protected, promoted and fulfilled.
2.The Commission notes the legacy of Apartheid in which adequate sanitation was denied the majority of our citizens.
3.The Commission finds that the consultation process was inadequate.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1.It is recommended that the City re-install the 51 toilets and enclose them with immediate effect.
2.The Commission recommends that the City’s projects that have currently been placed on hold pending this finding, is carried out and completed in a manner that does not violate the right to dignity.
3.The City must inform the Commission at least on a monthly basis as to its progress in respect of Recommendations 1 and 2 above.
4.The National Department of Human Settlements in conjunction with the Department of Water Affairs should intervene more actively in all provinces to ensure that its stated policy of ensuring the eradication of the bucket system is achieved more expeditiously throughout the country. This includes the sharing of communal toilets and the erection of unenclosed toilets.

Mayor Dan PlatoAtt: Mr. Dan Plato
Mayor, City of Cape Town
Cc: Ms. Helen Zille
Premier, Western Cape

Dear Mayor,

1. In a statement last week and an associated opinion piece in the Cape Times (27 May 2010) the SJC – a grassroots social movement campaigning non-violently for improved sanitation services in informal settlements – condemned the politicisation of the provision of toilets to residents in Makhaza. We urged all parties to refocus on the fundamental issue, specifically that countless people in Makhaza have been and continue to be deprived of their constitutional rights to health, safety and dignity.

2. We strongly condemned the incitement of violence by ANCYL regional secretary Loyiso Nkohle, but also called on the City to acknowledge that the Makhaza arrangement – regardless of its initial intentions – had serious flaws. It is clear that these toilets did not meet basic norms and standards. Contrary to the assertion in your statement of 31 May 2010, national norms and standards are not met solely when there is “one toilet for every five dwellings”, but also require that they be “safe and hygienic” and “private and protected from the weather”.

This article appeared in The Cape Times on 27 May 2010.
 
There was widespread controversy earlier this year when it emerged that 50 households in the low-income settlement of Makhaza (Khayelitsha) had been provided with unenclosed toilets, leaving residents deprived of their rights to health, safety and dignity. The City of Cape Town, governed by the DA, claimed an agreement had been reached with the community. It entailed the commitment to build an external toilet for each home, as opposed to one for every five homes, provided each household built their own enclosures (walls and roofs). However, many were not aware of this arrangement and, in some cases, were unable to afford the material with which to do so, forcing them to use uncovered toilets in full view of the passing public.

The source of the widespread media attention was an ANCYL complaint to the Human Rights Commission and public outrage, which culminated in an apology from DA leader Helen Zille on Human Rights Day.

On Thursday 20 May a demonstration was held outside the Department of Home Affairs in Cape Town, South Africa, to protest against the sentencing of Malawian couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga. The two men were given 14 years in jail for ‘gross indecency’ and the ‘crime’ of getting engaged.

To punish these two men for as innocent a thing as showing their commitment to each other is unjust, inhumane and an abject violation of human rights. The SJC calls on the South African government to intervene in order to reverse this shameful act of discrimination and victimisation in Malawi.

Below is a video of the protest, and also a link to the online petition calling for Steven and Tiwonge’s immediate release. Please sign the petition and share both the petition and the video with others, in order to increase the volume of the call for justice.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Siyayinqoba
http://www.petitiononline.com/M100518R/petition.html

You may also sign our petition here.

Makhosandile Qezo: Makhosandile two days after the attack

An SJC member and Khayelitsha resident was stabbed in the face on Saturday whilst trying to relieve himself in a clearing alongside the N2 highway.

Makhosandile “Scarre” Qezo, who lives in RR section - an informal settlement in Khayelitsha in which there are approximately 3000 households and only 240 toilets - had walked across Lansdowne Road and was relieving himself behind a bush in the clearing alongside the N2 when two men attacked him.

“One of the men screamed ‘Where’s the phone?!’ and swore at me”, he said. Before he could “pull up his trousers or respond” the man stabbed him in the face. “After he stabbed me, I tried to grab him but grabbed the knife and cut my hand. He then threw sand in my face so I couldn’t see him.”

Witnesses of the assault, which occurred just after 7am, attempted to come to Makhosandile’s aid. As they approached his attacker fled, taking his cell phone with him.   

This harrowing ordeal was endured all because Makhosandile needed to use the toilet – the most fundamental of human needs and rights – but had no toilet to go to. “There are no toilets nearby”, he said, “except those that are locked”.  Flush toilets in RR section (as in many other informal settlements) are self-allocated by the community to a number of households, who restrict access to their toilet through the use of a padlock.  This often results in arbitrary, uncoordinated, and unfair distribution resulting in some toilets being reserved for a small number of households whilst others are shared amongst scores of households.