City

Cape Town, 23 March 2010 – On Saturday 20 March, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) organised a queue of approximately 600 people outside a public toilet on the Sea Point Promenade as part of The World Toilet Queue – an international demonstration scheduled to coincide with World Water Day – to highlight the plight of the 2.5 billion people worldwide who do not have access to basic sanitation.  It was also arranged to draw attention to the lack of basic sanitation services in the City of Cape Town and highlight how this affects residents' health and safety, as well as the disproportionate investment in formal as opposed to informal settlements.  It was further designed to coincide with the Human Rights Day weekend, to illustrate how numerous rights, particularly those of dignity and security, are still deprived to hundreds of thousands of Capetonians, and indeed millions more across the country.  

On Sunday 21 March Alderman Clive Justus (Mayoral Committee Member for Utilities) released a statement (attached in addendum) condemning the event for being unfairly biased against the City of Cape Town and Sea Point, and drawing incorrect comparisons.  He includes various claims which are untrue, callous and that show contempt for poor people living in our city’s informal settlements.

The SJC is a Cape Town based organisation - with the vast majority of our member base located in Khayelitsha’s informal settlements. While we routinely acknowledge that inadequate and inequitable sanitation is a national problem, it is appropriate that we focus on the City. The Water Services Act expressly states that the provision of basic sanitation as defined by the Act is the responsibility of local government.

An expanded version of an article by Angy Peter and Gavin Silber, which appeared in today's City Press.

Queue For Sanitation & Safety: Approximately 600 people queuing outside a public toilet on the Sea Point Promenade as part of the SJC's "Queue For Sanitation & Safety".

CAPE TOWN, 21 March 2010 – This weekend people across the country mark Human Rights Day. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960. Deep sorrow and joy enter our thoughts when we pay tribute to those who died for the rights we enjoy today. The 69 people brutally massacred and the hundreds injured at Sharpeville peacefully demanding the scrapping of the Pass Laws. These laws were arguably the colonial and Apartheid state’s cruelest acts which denied freedom of movement and dignity to the majority of Black people.

We have come a long way – on Saturday the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) staged a protest on the Sea Point promenade – one that would have been impossible under Apartheid. However the struggle is not yet won – millions of working and poor people are routinely deprived of the rights that many of us take for granted. One that stands above all else, is the constitutional right to human dignity.

Last year, Ntombentsha Beja – a 75 year old resident of Makhaza, Khayelitsha was stabbed in the chest while walking to a toilet ten minutes from her home. She is not alone – men, women, and children risk robbery, assault, rape and murder daily when using a toilet.

Clean and functioning toilets, safe water sources, drainage, refuse collection and maintenance are grossly inadequate and in some cases non-existent in Khayelitsha. Accessing and using a toilet – the most unspoken and private of our basic human rights – can be life threatening.

How often do you fear for your safety when using a toilet?

For many, going to the toilet or accessing clean drinking water might seem like the most fundamental of service provisions and rights, but it is routinely denied to half a million people living in the City of Cape Town’s informal settlements.

Residents currently have to share one toilet amongst thirteen households (despite the law regulating five per household), and toilets are often dysfunctional, poorly maintained, unhygienic, unsafe and very sparsely located.

The SJC has conducted interviews with the Khayelitsha community, during which the issue of sanitation rates overwhelmingly as the primary concern with regards to safety. The simple act of using a toilet at night has become a life threatening activity, with people frequently attacked, raped, robbed and murdered on the often long and hazardous walk to relieve oneself. Women and children are particularly affected, but no one is exempt from the ubiquitous risk and fear.

The poor quality and under supply of toilets also results in enormous public health complications, including the spread of waterborne diseases and parasites such as gastroenteritis, worms and diarrhoea. The latter is currently one of the leading causes of death for children under five in Khayelitsha.

We have the power to contribute - in a small yet very significant way - to breaking the cycle of violent crime, and our fight starts with calling on government to ensure that basic sanitation is provided to all in Khayelitsha by October 2011.

We will not sit by while 20% of the City suffers. We will stand strong for sanitation, safety, and dignity.

Will you?