In Siyahlala, an informal settlement in the heart of Phillipi, Cape Town, the toilets supplied by the city have been blocked for a year. As a result around 300 households in Section G of the informal settlement use buckets to relieve themselves, before dumping them into the toilets that no longer flush. 

Lona Bukula, who’s been living here since 2016, says the sewage started overflowing when a nearby drain got blocked, causing the toilets to block too.

The situation is so bad that waste collectors don’t take the garbage away because the sewage is running into the dumping site. Now residents are faced with a compounding issue. 

“Waste has not been collected for weeks, it keeps piling up as residents continuously throw waste,” says Bukula.

To make matters worse, Section G of Siyahlala doesn’t have running water. According to the residents they had to remove water taps as these were situated directly next to the blocked toilets and weren’t safe to use. Now, they have to fetch water from other areas.  

Anele Gcebetsha bought a chemical toilet for her family, which is now being used by multiple families in the neighbourhood.   

“This toilet gets full within two days. Everyone helps themselves here, both adults and children,” says Gcebetsha.

Gcebetsha tells Health-e News that sometimes when the toilet is full they have to stir it so the stools can dissolve and go down, making it easier for the next person to use.

She says his 18-month-old son got a skin rash from playing next to the uncollected waste.  

“He usually plays with other children in front of the house, sometimes I find them pulling stuff from the waste. For example, they would make cars from the discarded milk boxes. As a parent you can’t stop your child from playing because that is where they learn most things,” says Gcebetsha.

Other people in the community have also reported developing rashes.  Skin infections are one of the public health risks caused by exposure to sewage.

No help from municipality

Bukula says they reported the issue to the ward councillor and municipality numerous times. “But till today we haven’t got any help.” 

According to Siyabonga Madlongwana, another resident, the ward councillor advised them to use social media to report this matter.

“He told us if we have Facebook accounts we must take videos of the sewage and post them, he will therefore tag pages and accounts that might help us,” says Madlongwana.

Community leader Mongezi Tele says the ward councillor told him in February that the issue is being attended to. 

“I sent emails to some departments such as health and they had promised to follow up, but they didn’t seem to be aware of the issue,” says Tele.

Ward councillor Bennett Payiya denies advising the residents to use Facebook to report this matter, saying he has also visited the area and saw that the situation is bad.

“I got a report last year and I tried to get people to come and fix the toilets. They promised to come but they never did. Even today the situation is still the same or even worse,” says Payiya.

New project planned 

According to the City of Cape Town’s MMC for Water and Sanitation,  Zahid Badroodien, his department has been fixing the ongoing blockages at these toilets since 2024.

Badroodien says city teams have gone twice a week to clear blockages at these toilets and more dates are being scheduled for April. He adds that city teams can only access the area with security escorts. 

“This means that our teams are not necessarily able to attend to service requests as soon as they would like. But in such cases, residents are assured they will respond as soon as it is safe to do so and escorts have been arranged,” says Badroodien. 

Badroodien says there is a project planned for the 2025/26 financial year. 

“This project is to temporarily replace the non-functional full flush toilets with container toilets for the Siyahlala informal settlement, while the City looks into the possibility of redesigning the sewer line, also considering the available sewer network capacity.” – Health-e News