Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale will visit the Free State town of Harrismith on Wednesday where a row over toilets erupted this week, SABC news reported.

Residents claimed they were told they had to pay R10 000 in 2008 if they wanted a site with a toilet.

Sexwale told the national broadcaster on Tuesday it appeared corruption was causing the problem.

"What we see here is the true and ugly face of corruption, of misuse of power," he said.

"Now when we stand up all the time and say we are fighting corruption we don't want our voices to be muffled. Every South African must stand up against this."

Four people were arrested and charged with public violence on Monday during protests over the housing sites.

Police spokesman Sergeant Mmako Mophiring said a shop operated by a foreign national was attacked and a bread delivery truck was damaged during the Tshiame township protests.

Maluti-A-Phofung municipal spokesperson Matefu Mokoena said the protests had erupted despite consultations with the community over the 250 sites that were developed by the municipality.

Protesters claim that the R10 000 to R12 000 the municipality wants for each of the sites is too dear.

Mokoena said: "The community is demanding that the sites should be free. We cannot be giving sites for free."

Sexwale said it was important for police to act in areas where there were open toilets.

In the Free State's first toilet row, in May, the Human Rights Commission received a complaint that 1 600 toilets in the ANC-run Moqhaka municipality had been left without enclosures for the past eight years.

The matter was apparently the result of an agreement between the municipality and local residents, that the municipality would provide the sanitation and residents erect the enclosures. Residents have denied this.

A similar matter attracted huge attention in the Western Cape.

On April 29 the Western Cape High Court ordered the DA-led City of Cape Town to enclose 1316 toilets in the Makhaza settlement on the Cape Flats.