“The sewerage pipe has been broken for almost nine months and only one of the two toilets are in reasonable working order,” he says.
Zinhle adds that the toilet doors are broken, which means that anyone who wishes to use the toilets would not be able to do so, due to a lack of privacy.
“Sometimes, taxi passengers need to use the toilets, but they can’t, either because they are broken, or because there are no doors,” he says.
“It is not right, because we have older people waiting here for taxis – sometimes for long periods of time.”
As a result of the poor conditions of these public toilets, it is reported that people urinate and leave their human waste outside the toilets, which creates unsanitary conditions for all.
“It ends up becoming our responsibility to clean the premises, because we spend the most time here,” says Zinhle.
The frustrated car guard says he spoke to one of the municipal workers who came past the public area two months ago, but the deteriorating state of the toilets still remains.
The toilet building is decorated with graffiti and is also said to have people who camp inside the ceiling at night.
“Randomly, you will find people sleeping in here and it is very unsafe,” says Zinhle.
He adds that this is not the first time they have had trouble with broken sewerage pipes and that they had to get the metro to come out and repair them two to three months previously.
“We are tired,” he says.
“The metro must decide either to fix this mess or to demolish the structure completely.”
