R25m project down drain as 670 toilets demolished

BUFFALO City Metro (BCM) has demolished more than 670 unsafe toilets in rural villages around East London, just five years after they were built.

Residents of the 25 villages around Tsholomnqa, Ncerha and Kidds Beach started complaining about the municipal toilets in 2009 when the metro failed to keep its promise of servicing the toilets regularly.

It cost the metro R6-million to replace the toilets.

The pit toilets, designed so that the waste could be pumped out regularly, have never been serviced since being built in 2008.

BCM’s ward 32 ANC branch leader Nobanzi Maweni said residents from 25 affected villages registered their complaints with the municipality through ward councillor Vuyani Peter, but little was done.

Things got out of hand in 2012, when residents battled to deal with the stench from the toilets, as some fell apart.

Maweni said that in June last year, a service provider met with the ANC branch committee and informed them that the “toilets that are in bad state” would be replaced, which they were.

But more problems came with the new prefabricated toilets, which BCM spokesman Keith Ngesi said cost the metro R6-million.

Maweni said: “Some are falling apart. Most have open gaps, and during rainy days you cannot use these toilets because it’s as good as relieving yourself in the bush.”

Ngesi said the metro replaced 676 toilets, with 5 007 households benefitting from the R25-million project that the city rolled out in 25 villages during the 2008/9 financial year.

Ngesi said the metro new project last year.

But the newly built toilets are not up to scratch either, according to Nophumzile Yarende, a resident of Khiwane village. She showed the Daily Dispatch how the whole structure moved to one side when sitting on the toilet, posing a danger to herself and her six-year-old granddaughter.

Ngesi said the BCM had not registered any new complaints from residents about the new structures.

He also reassured all those still using the old toilets they would be emptied soon. —

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Picture: MICHAEL PINYANA UNHAPPY: Local ANC committee member, Nobanzi Maweni of Khiwane village, who is one of many disgruntled villagers who received new toilets