SAHRC will meet Mayor de Lille over sanitation crisis in Cape Town
07 June 2013
Earlier today, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) conducted a site inspection of some of the areas in Cape Town affected by the current sanitation crisis most notably, Gugulethu‘s informal settlements of Kanna, Barcelona and Europe. The Commission is deeply concerned about the state of sanitation in these areas and believes that the current crisis poses a significant health risk particularly to vulnerable communities.
The SAHRC observed that there were no proper sanitation facilities in some of the areas we visited and that community members reported that there had been no waste collection services since 2 April 2013 due to a strike by the City's service provider, Sannicare. This has resulted in an accumulation of waste which needs urgent attention and intervention.
The Commission has therefore decided to take immediate steps to address the current crisis by firstly, engaging with the Mayor's office, following her request for a meeting to clarify the City of Cape Town's position on the eradication of the bucket system. The Commission will also engage with national, provincial and local government as well as the Public Protector and civil society organizations to intervene in this matter.
In a statement released by the Mayor on 6 June 2013, she publicly called on the SAHRC to assist the City in educating residents about the benefits of portable flush toilets (PFTs) and to further assist in eradicating the small number of bucket toilets still in circulation. It must be noted that the Commission is an independent body established in terms of the Constitution with a specific mandate to monitor, protect and promote the attainment of human rights. Having received complaints from communities arising from Government service delivery choices, it would be inappropriate and contrary to its legal mandate to participate or endorse government programmes which are the subject of a complaint.