Lingelihle township residents forced to use bushes as toilets

MORE than 1 000 people living in temporary municipal housing shelters in Berlin’s Lingelihle township are forced to share just three toilets.

Residents say five of the eight toilets they had been provided with are no longer working.

Community leader Phumlani Khwaza said they had moved to the area in 2012 and were told they would stay there for six months – “but it was all lies”.

“We are so disappointed by all the lies that we were told. This is like a refugee camp in our own country as we are grouped and left to live in these structures and conditions.

“There are only three toilets that are working here to accommodate over 1 000 adults and children. Is this the new South Africa we are living in?”

Buffalo City Metro ward councillor Gideon Nokrwexe said the residents needed to be educated in how to use toilets.

“They are throwing all foreign things into these temporary toilets; how do you expect them to function? We need to educate them,” said Nokrwexe.

The residents were moved from land near Berlin town after it was deemed not suitable for habitation. Resident Notembile Vemile said government was struggling to get land on which to build them homes.

Vemile said at times they used nearby bushes as toilets. “It’s a degrading situation. We are not like human beings; we are forgotten people. We can’t keep quiet for too long.”

Some residents said the shacks from which they had been moved were “much better” than the temporary ones, which were falling apart.

Nokrwexe said BCM was trying to source land. “We can’t just dump them there. We are working hard to get them a piece of land for their homes.” — bonganif@dispatch.co.za