Statement by the Executive Mayor of Cape Town,
Alderman Patricia de Lille
City has complied with court order to enclose toilets
In July 2011, the City of Cape Town, in accordance with an order of the
Cape High Court, acted to enclose 1316 toilets in the Silvertown Project
with concrete enclosures.
As per the Court’s instruction, the City undertook door to door survey’s in
conjunction with a community facilitator to determine whether or not
individual residents consented to the said enclosures.
After extensive consultation, a total of 1030 toilets out of 1316 toilets
were enclosed with a concrete structure. In the case of the remaining 286
toilets, residents explicitly and in writing chose not to have their toilets
enclosed with concrete for various reasons, including the fact that some
residents had already enclosed their own.
Furthermore, in each case the City has signed a deed of sale with
residents which, once the transfer process has been completed, will see
the title of each erf, which includes the toilets in question, being
transferred to residents.
While the phenomenon of unenclosed toilets is not something that is
unique to the City of Cape Town, the City does feel that, in its drive to
create a caring and inclusive city, it has acted with despatch to uphold the
dictates of the law and its obligation as a local government to provide
people with dignity.
The speed of the City’s response stands in stark contrast to other parts of
the country, such as Rammulotsi (Viljoenskroon) in the Free State, where
there are reports that literally hundreds of toilets remain unenclosed
there.
The City of Cape Town remains fully committed to dealing with service
delivery backlogs that are a result of South Africa’s cruel and divisive
apartheid history.
In the last financial year we committed approximately R1.6 billion to the
upgrading of informal settlements and we will spend in excess of
approximately R2.1 billion in the next financial year in a drive to try and
eradicate backlogs and improve service delivery.
The challenge is a daunting one as the backlogs are a moving target due
to the pressures posed by ever increasing urbanisation. In all our efforts
we hope that communities will support us, by for example, helping to take
responsibility for the maintenance of communal toilets and other facilities.