Like your average street, K Street has parallel rows of houses on either side. The odd thing though, is that one side is called ‘K Street’ and the other side ‘Hlalani’.
Like your average street, K Street has parallel rows of houses on either side. The odd thing though, is that one side is called ‘K Street’ and the other side ‘Hlalani’.
Also, people in Hlalani have used old ventilated improved pit (VIP) toilets for over 23 years, while K Street residents have had flush toilets for the better part of the last decade.
Asakhe Jali of Hlalani said using the outside VIP toilets becomes even more unpleasant than usual when it rains.
“And the pit gets very full and smells so bad, and we end up asking to use flush toilets at our neighbours across the road,” he said, “but they sometimes refuse.”
A visibly angry Thando Bhikitsha said there were other problems surrounding the VIP latrines that need attention.
Sometimes there are delays with municipal trucks that come to empty the pit toilets in Hlalani, he said. Bhikitsha also accused some municipal workers of asking for bribes.
“[Municipal workers] would normally ask for R50 when they have to do the services they’re paid to do, and if you don’t have it they won’t suck out the faeces,” he said.
Makana Municipality embarked on a project to have the VIP toilets removed and replaced with flushing toilets late in 2010.
According to Makana Project Management Unit head Phakama Booi, R7 million was set aside for the project. Phase one – installing sewer lines – was supposed to be completed by June 2011.
Shortly after, the second phase – building the flush toilets in brick structures – was to be started, but none of that has been finished until recently.
“The problem that stopped the project was the TLT Enterprise Company, which did not complete the project and ran away with the money,” said Ward 7 councillor Malibongwe Khubalo.
Khubalo told Grocott’s Mail the matter is still being investigated. People in the community speculated about why construction had not progressed for so long.
Some residents attributed the halt in construction to poor structural planning that prevented pipes from being laid in the final stages of the project last year.
Some people were under the impression that an electrical power transformer was in the way where sewer lines were to be placed.
“The constructors could not move on from that point because it would have caused electrical problems,” said Bhikitsha. “So they [construction company]had to dig in another space.”
Grocott’s Mail could not get any official municipal comment on the matter.
Khubalo did however say that on Wednesday 17 July a new construction company was appointed by the municipality. The project is due to resume 14 days from that date.
