Tag: toilets

Hunt for segregated toilets in SA continue

The SA Human Rights Commission on Wednesday said it would investigate another toilet segregation allegation at an animal clinic in Louis Trichardt, Limpopo.

“We are not aware of this allegation, but we will look into it,” SAHRC spokesman Isaac Mangena told Sapa.

“We will visit and see. Yes we will send investigators to that place.”

Mangena was commenting after the Sowetan newspaper reported that the Blouberg Animal Clinic had separate toilets for whites and blacks.

The clinic is located in the same area as the Vleissentraal office block, which came under fire last week after reported claims of toilet racism emerged.

Veterinarian Freddie Harris, who co-owns the clinic, declined a request from the newspaper to comment.

Last week, the same newspaper reported that the Vleissentraal office block in Louis Trichardt allocated toilets according to race groups.

The SAHRC subsequently told Sapa it had sent investigators to the building.

It launched an investigation, and warned that it would resort to approaching the Equality Court if it did not get co-operation from the building’s owner Bennie van der Merwe.

Last week Wednesday, Van der Merwe opened a case of defamation against the Sowetan newspaper over the article.

Van der Merwe denied the racism allegations to Sapa and said the newspaper was defaming its name.

“The allegations are not true. The newspaper didn’t even consult us. They didn’t phone us for comment,” he said.

He also took issue with its “whites only” headline.

Van der Merwe said another case of intimidation was also opened with the police, after the building’s manager received threatening text messages.

“We received threatening SMSes from an EFF member who threatened to burn our building, but the EFF claims it’s not from them,” he said at the time.

Mangena, meanwhile, said the commission would be meeting with Van der Merwe later on Wednesday.

“He will be coming to our offices in Polokwane today. This meeting will form part of our investigation.”

Faecal wars: ANC threatens to make Cape Town ungovernable

ANC Youth League protest a few days ago, telling DA leader Helen Zille to go back to her country, Germany

The African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape has threatened to bring Cape Town to a standstill in what it refers to as a bid to get the ear of Premier Helen Zille so the Democratic Alliance (DA) can deliver “better services” to poor people in the province.

In what could be seen as a drive by the provincial ANC to pile pressure on the DA ahead of the 2014 national elections, the party on Thursday led hundreds of protesters in a march to the provincial legislature and demanded that Ms Zille collect their memorandum of grievances.

Among other things, the protesters demanded better sanitation, housing and “more comfort”. They said the controversial portable flush toilets that were being rolled out in some Cape Town townships showed that the DA did not care about black people.

It was the second day in a row that the ANC had protested outside the provincial legislature against the DA, although Wednesday’s protest by ANC members of the legislature against “DA power abuse” was minor in comparison to Thursday’s march.

Addressing the crowd outside the legislature on Thursday, ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile said Ms Zille’s “refusal” to come out and collect the memorandum showed that she was “scared of the people”. DA provincial leader and cultural affairs and sport MEC Ivan Meyer was sent out to collect the memorandum but Mr Mjongile said the document would only be handed to Ms Zille.

“The next time (when we come to hand over the document), we will bring Cape Town to a standstill … we will bring a crowd of 10,000,” he said.

ANC provincial leader Marius Fransman said that communities “can march all they want but Zille will never listen”.

“She does not even accept our memorandums … the only way is by voting,” he said. “We have to vote for transformation in this province … come 2014, Zille will be a refugee.”

While the Cabinet on Thursday condemned the dumping of human waste in Cape Town by protesters opposing portable flush toilets, Mr Fransman said the protests had actually raised “real issues” around service delivery in the Western Cape.

Earlier in the day during a press conference, ANC Youth League national task team co-ordinator Magasela Mzobe said the Western Cape government had failed to ensure “the very rudimentary levels of sanitation for the people (in township areas such as) Philippi and Kosovo”.

“This speaks to the DA’s total disregard of the dignity of the poor and black majority in the province,” he said. “Poor people in the Western Cape remain of a lesser status and not entitled to the very basic rights to sanitation that today accrue to those in the leafy suburbs of Rondebosch, Camps Bay and many others.”

Ms Zille’s spokesman, Zak Mbhele, said on Thursday that the premier had not been available to collect the memorandum and that is why Mr Meyer was sent to receive it on her behalf. He also said the ANC had nothing “of substance or truth to say”.

“While it’s clear that the ANC has good grassroots machinery to mobilise lots of people for marches and demonstrations, it’s also the case that it has nothing of substance or truth to say,” Mr Mbhele said.

“It’s all a great spectacle and lots of rhetoric but there is no basis for the accusations they make against the Western Cape government. Undoubtedly there is more to come in the run-up to the 2014 elections.” – BDLive

Toilet-flushing symphony in Zimbabwe

Probable Zimbabwean toilet

City authorities in Zimbabwe’s second largest city of Bulawayo, are appealing to home owners to flush their toilets at a specific time, in order to unblock sewers after days of severe water rationing. The ‘big flush’ time has been set for 7:30 pm.

The Bulawayo City Council has asked its 1.5 million residents to flush their toilets simultaneously when water supplies are restored. City officials say ‘‘synchronized flushing’’ is needed to clear waste that would have accumulated in sanitary facilities – which will have been affected by days of water outages.
The hope is that if everyone flushes together there is less chance of sewer blockages and pipe bursts, officials claimed.

Simela Dube, the city’s director of engineering, said: “We need to flush our toilets at the same time to push all the waste that will be just under the surface, as residents would be using little water to flush toilets during water shedding hours.”

Bulawayo’s two main dams, supplying water to the city, have been drying up due to severe droughts in the southwestern part of Zimbabwe.

After expelling whites, Zimbabwe’s formerly first-world infrastructure has been crumbling. Agricultural production has also plummeted, leading to a shortage of foreign exchange and funds necessary for maintaining essential services.