Safety & Security

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.

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.

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.

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.

SJC Co-Chairperson Angy Peter responds to questions from the audience

On 19 April 2010 the Social Justice Coalition held a mass-meeting in the OR Tambo Hall in Khayelitsha, to discuss sanitation and safety in informal settlements – issues identified by the surrounding communities as principle areas of concern.  Approximately 500 residents were in attendance.
 
SJC Secretary Axolile Notywala opened the meeting by introducing the SJC’s campaign for Clean & Safe Toilets in Cape Town’s informal settlements. A speech by SJC Educator Akhona Siximba explaining how this focus tied into the SJC’s core mission of “Safety and Security for all” was followed by Co-Chairperson Angy Peter’s summary of the interconnected issue of sanitation and safety in informal settlements.
 
With approximately 47, 650 households having no access to a toilet (figure taken from The Water Dialogues: Cape Town Case Study, 2009) in Cape Town’s informal settlements, many people are forced to relieve themselves in bushes or use public toilets far away from populated and relatively safe areas. Angy indicated that this has led to a wide range of safety threats including where people have been hit by cars while crossing the road, attacked, raped and even murdered on their way to relieve themselves.
 

SJC members inspect RR Section for Health & Safety threats, seen here with a local Enviromental Health Office (EHO) Official

On 8 April 2010 SJC members accompanied Laurence Grootboom - Functional Operations Manager for the City’s Water and Sanitation Department - on a visit to an area of RR section long afflicted by an overflowing sewerage line. This followed numerous efforts by the SJC over the preceding six weeks to have the problem rectified, and a meeting a week earlier with the Mayor of Cape Town and other City officials in which it was raised. 
 
The manhole has been leaking raw sewage around – and at times directly through – local resident Noaskile Thethayuthi’s home for well over a year.  Her three infant children are ill with diahorrea on a weekly basis on the account of having to live and play amongst raw sewerage.  The flow of sewerage is also directed over a standpipe which hundreds use daily for water, and over the doorsteps of many of Noaskile’s neighbours. 
 
There are at present 240 toilets used by 3000 households in RR Section.  National norms and standards dictate that there should be 5 households per toilet, but the ratio in RR section is over 12 households to one toilet. Moreover, many of these toilets are unusable as a result of irregular (often non-existent) maintenance on the part of the 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.