Imagine having to pay your neighbour to use their toilet every day. This is what residents of seven houses in Extension 12 in Ikageng have had to put up with for the past 11 years.
These residents were looking forward to receiving their RDP houses in 2009, but when they moved in, they realised their installed toilets didn’t have a connection to the standard sewerage pipes. In fact, there were no pipes at all.
These residents have to pay their neighbours R300 per month to use their toilet facilities.
Mina Lindiwe, who lives at 13837 Tsatsi Street, says it is bearable during the day, but it is not pleasant to use a “slopemmer” at night and empty it into your neighbour’s toilet the next day.
Anna Khalipha is a 70-year-old “gogo” who also struggles without a toilet. She is just as disappointed in the municipality for promising to fix the problem but doing nothing about it.
When Marius Diedericks contacted infrastructure, one of their employees by the name of Happy Tobolo even came out for an inspection. Nothing came of it, however.
Last year, Hester Makomfana had to arrange her daughter’s funeral at one of the houses in Tsatsi Street. She again made the ward councillor, Mr Mothabane, aware of the problem. Luckily, he had arranged mobile toilets for the funeral but forgot about the issue after they were removed.
“This was only a temporary solution. We need toilets with sewerage connections in these houses. I am about to give up on the municipality who makes promises but doesn’t deliver”, says Hester. In some yards, desperate residents have dug their own “long drops”, which are a health hazard for their neighbours. In Baitshepi Street, one of these toilets were dug in the backyard, but the hole wasn’t deep enough and the smell reveals a hole close to the toilet, which they have tried to seal with bricks and corrugated iron.
According to Jeanette Tshite, the municipal spokesperson, consumers were supposed to have reported the matter immediately after occupying the houses or within three months of realising that the toilets were not connected to the sewer line. “It is unfortunate that the matter has only been brought to the municipality’s attention now, 11 years later.
It will be attended to, however,” she said. According to her, the technical services department confirmed that several houses with similar challenges had been attended to.
“The said houses in Tsatsi and Baitshepi streets will also be inspected as soon as possible so the matter can be resolved. It would be much easier if the addresses of those houses were forwarded to the municipality.”
