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ActionSA is extremely disappointed that at yesterday’s Council sitting, the ANC- EFF coalition in the City of Johannesburg chose to vote against the motion that sought to eradicate the bucket toilet system in underprivileged communities in the City.

The motion sought to recommend that the City of Johannesburg Executive develop a city-wide bucket toilet eradication plan within all formalized informal settlements within the City. 

Communities that were to benefit from the motion are Kliptown and Eldorado Park which for the past 29 years after the dawn of democracy is still subjected to bucket toilets system.

When Herman Mashaba, ActionSA President visited Eldorado Park a week ago and witnessed the state of sanitation services in the community, he promised that our councillors in the City of Johannesburg would raise the issue of bucket toilet systems in the City Council, which we did.

Furthermore, ActionSA councillors serving on the ​​Environment and Infrastructure Services​ (EISD) Section 79 sub-committee visited the area of Kliptown, community members raised issues around the lack of running water, delays in the collection of human waste, dilapidating state of mobile toilets and other issues that pose health risks to residents. 

As a Party grounded in social justice, ActionSA believes that it is time that the City of Johannesburg restores the dignity of these communities through eradicating the use of bucket toilets and providing hygienic sanitation to these communities.

It is a shame that parties like the PA, AIC, UDM, and GOOD, who got most of their votes from these communities, assisted the ANC and EFF to successfully block the motion, thereby denying the people of Kliptown, Eldorado Park and other communities an opportunity to have adequate sanitation. 

ActionSA will continue to put pressure on the ANC-EFF coalition to ensure that they urgently address the harmful sanitary conditions our residents must live under, and to improve sanitation service delivery to those communities.

It is unacceptable that so many years since the dawn of democracy our communities are still subjected to the bucket toilet system even though it is well within the powers of the City to change that.

Issued by ActionSA