Port St Johns informal settlements worst off in SA
Residents in informal settlements in SA are subjected to unhealthy and unsafe living conditions that have exposed them to the Covid-19 pandemic and criminals — with those in Port St Johns worst off.
The coastal municipality ticked all the wrong boxes in a nationwide survey of living conditions in SA.
The report by a number of civil society organisations surveyed 562 residents from 196 settlements in Port St Johns, Buffalo City Metro, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Cape Town, Mossel Bay, Witzenberg, Knysna, Umsunduzi, Emfuleni, Cederberg and Emalahleni municipalities.
Titled Asivikelane (Let’s protect one another), the campaign is spearheaded by Afesis-corplan in East London, Budget Partnership-SA, Planact, SA SDI Alliance, Development Action Group, Social Justice Coalition, Grassroots and Social Change Assistance Trust.
Through the campaign, the civil society groups monitor service delivery in informal settlements.
Port St Johns residents said there were no sanitary services in their areas, forcing them to build their own pit toilets. There was no refuse collection; residents had no access to clean water; where there were toilets they were not cleaned; and residents had not been given soap or hand sanitiser by the municipality.
Port St Johns mayor Nomvuzo Mlombile-Cingo told the Dispatch they were behind in their service delivery programmes, which included providing toilets to residents.
“In 2017, the municipality was not working for eight months so you can imagine the backlog, which has been there naturally because our town was meant for a few white [people].
“But providing sanitation is not our mandate but that of our district municipality [OR Tambo]; and the construction of toilets and providing water is their responsibility,” MlombileCingo said.
OR Tambo municipal spokesperson Mntuwoxolo Ngudle on Wednesday said they had supported ward 8 residents in Majola village, Port St Johns, with 230 water harvesting brackets as well as hand sanitisers, cleaning gloves and soap.
“All these were coupled with support to 100 ex-mineworkers with food vouchers worth R1,000 for every household of an ex-mineworker throughout PSJ,” Ngudle said.
He said the municipality had supported 100 youths with seedlings to “maintain food supplies to our communities”.
“We are building seed banks and nurseries through all local municipalities to support poverty relief and convert the agricultural potential of the district to being a food basket of the province,” he said.
The situation was not as dire in BCM, according to the report, even though residents had complained of some poor services.
Residents in all metros, except in some parts of BCM, reported inadequate public lighting, with some residents calling for toilets to be built in their areas.
Women reported fearing for their safety because of poor lighting
Orange Grove resident Siyabonga Mgoqi, who was one of the interviewed residents in the Asivikelane report, said some people were forced to relieve themselves in bushes.
However, there was light at the end of the tunnel.
“Sometimes you’ll find human faeces in front of your door in the morning but at least now we have hope for change, because the municipality is building toilets at two separate areas.
“We are excited because we’ve been living under inhumane conditions here,” he said.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said they were distributing water tanks and ablution facilities to informal settlements and donating personal protective equipment (PPE) to residents.
“The municipality is cleaning its public convenience facilities, clearing illegal dumps, distributing black refuse bags and collecting refuse,” he said, adding they had targeted distribution of soaps and sanitisers to all 50 wards by the end of July.
Most of the respondents were women who reported fearing for their safety because of poor lighting in their communities. This made them easy targets for criminals at night.
Afesis-corplan programme officer Vusi Gqomose said bad lighting complaints were mostly from Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, with 90% of residents saying public lighting was inadequate.
“Sanitation is still a problem with some residents in most municipalities still reporting that they do not have access to sanitation. In the Eastern Cape, many Port St Johns residents do not have access to municipal sanitation and have resorted to constructing their own pit toilets,” Gqomose said.
“Those who have access to public toilets say dirty toilets remain a problem and that some are broken or blocked.”
Gqomose said the government needed to address sanitation problems urgently to slow down the exponential spread of Covid-19 in the province.
Afesis-corplan has donated PPE to communities and cleaners who maintain communal toilets in informal settlements.