Metro denies providing residents with bucket toilets

Despite evidence, the Ekurhuleni metro denies that its contractor provided the community of Angelo informal settlement with bucket toilets, as recently reported.

The residents of Angelo informal settlement in 2017 threatened to stage a smelly protest if the municipality did not begin work to remove all the bucket toilets similar to this one.

This comes after this publication ran a story about residents of the area threatening to stage a smelly protest if the municipality did not remove all the bucket toilets in the informal settlement and replace them with a better system.

The Advertiser visited the area and discovered that the bucket toilet system (not just chemical toilets) is still present, despite attempts by concerned residents to end it.

Municipal contractors also rolled out this type of chemical communal toilet in the area. But residents say these toilets don’t have adequate ventilation systems, especially in the current hot and humid conditions.

Ekurhuleni metro spokesman Themba Gadebe insisted that the metro does not provide the bucket system and that no homes in Angelo use the system.

“The toilets are provided as specified, being a chemical toilet,” said Gadebe.

“We will investigate allegations of non-performance of our contractors in terms of cleaning and servicing the chemical toilets.”

He said the metro never received a request for the bucket toilets to be removed, which was apparently made by the community leaders of Angelo.