So Many Questions

Arrests have not stopped the Cape Town poo protesters. Chris Barron asked Sithembele Majova of the organising Western Cape Informal Settlements Task Team . . .

What is your agenda? These portable toilets that were produced by the city of Cape Town, the people across the informal settlements are rejecting them.

Why? We regard them as a substitution for the bucket system.

But No, they’re they are much better, worse. aren’t They they? cause unhygienic a smell to in live the with house. poo It’s inside the house. Doesn’t sealed tank? the poo get flushed into a It that’s remains why in it causes that container that smell. and According a flushable to toilet. us, this is not Water from the cistern goes into the bowl when you pull a lever and flushes the poo into a sealed tank. That’s a flush toilet, isn’t it? No. According to the community, a flushable toilet is connected to drainage. Even if it isn’t connected to drainage, how can it be worse than the bucket system? I’m not saying the bucket is correct. But the bucket is having its room outside; you don’t have it inside the house. Does it help to throw poo around? We want the people who are living in those nice areas like Constantia to feel how poo can damage your life when it is next to you. And we think it’s helping because now the mayor has said the portable toilets will no longer be forced onto the communities.

So why are you throwing poo? We take petitions to the city, but there is no one coming out and accepting the petitions . . . Maybe they’re scared you’ll throw poo at them? No, we didn’t throw the poo at first. At first we marched peacefully. They didn’t respond. And when we asked the mayor and members of her committee to come to our public meetings, they refused. When they come, don’t the people chase them away?

No.

Didn’t that happen to the mayor? Let me explain. When she comes to Khayelitsha, she only talks about the budget and audits. People don’t want to hear about that. Don’t you accept that there are budgetary constraints? No, we dispute that. The money is being stolen.

Who is stealing it?

I don’t want to get into politics that much, but workers are being underpaid and that concerns us. You’re concerned about the workers, but who do you think has to clean up the poo you throw? We don’t care. The premier must assign someone to do that thing. If we go to the airport and dump the poo, the people there must find a way to clean it. We are not throwing the faeces at the workers. You talk about the dignity of people who must use portable toilets, but what about the dignity of those workers? No dignity is being violated when someone is cleaning something that is dirty. The population of Cape Town grew 30% in the past 10 years. Is it possible to provide every new shack with a full-on sewerage system? We reject the argument that the population is rising every day, because there is money. Where did they get the money to build the Cape Town Stadium for the World Cup? If they borrowed it, why can’t they borrow to build houses and toilets? The poo you throw — are you stealing people’s tanks from their portable toilets? No. People voluntarily bring their tanks.

They bring their own poo?

Yes. Then we go to town together.

Are you with the ANC? Yes, but I was never mandated by the ANC. Do you think the ANC will give you the toilets you want? If they do not deliver, the people will not stop these things. We will continue with our action. Do you know that when the DA took over from the ANC in 2006, there were more than 200 informal settlements with no sanitation at all? The DA, when they came to power, said they will ban the bucket system.

Isn’t that what they’re doing? No, they’re making it worse. But this issue must not be politicised. Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing? No, we just want the government that is in power to deliver for its people. And we are going to continue until this issue is resolved.

Or you all end up in jail? Pollsmoor Prison is 100% better than our shacks. There is better security, you are provided with security guards, you wash with hot water, running water, and you have a flushing toilet.