SA ’ s shame of toilets
INERTIA, ineptitude and abject disregard for human rights seem to form the main ingredients in local governments ’ failure to provide decent sanitation for the people of South Africa.
This assertion is strengthened by the contents and recommendations of a report by a national task team led by ANC MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to probe complaints that local governments had failed to provide enclosed toilets for poor communities.
While the report has revealed what almost everyone knows and abhors – that people in several provinces are continuing to use pit toilets – its proposed plan of action has not been implemented.
It also revealed the dangers people face relieving themselves in the veld in areas where there are no toilets. Sadly still, millions more are forced to use unenclosed toilets.
The report has recommended the establishment of a sanitation agency by April, creating a national budget dedicated to the sanitation programme by June, and the development of a national sanitation policy or legislation by June.
Human settlements spokesman Xolani Xundu told Sowetan that the report was tabled in Parliament towards the end of last year and a cabinet committee recommended that it be combined with Monitoring Minister Collins Chabane’s department’s 2012 report on the status of sanitation services in South Africa.
But, all the talks and plans – followed by no decisive action, including simply enclosing the open toilets, to start with – shows the scandals will persist.
After Sowetan visited the worst-affected areas in Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and North West – which were highlighted in the report – it found no changes to the dehumanising conditions there. How much longer will we have to contend with statements from the report, including one that says: “Poor sanitation for the majority of black people in SA, especially in the rural areas, is one of the key problems inherited from the previous era.”
The ironic quote from the report by Madikizela-Mandela should warn against the further eroding of the citizens’ dignity: “Having travelled across the country, listened to the outcry of our people about their dissatisfaction with service delivery and improper sanitation facilities I can unequivocally state that we have a serious problem that threatens to have a negative impact not only on the health of this nation, but on the very democratic culture we aspire to build.”
Let us stop the talks about talks, and do something concrete to restore people’s dignity.