The Ekurhuleni Metro’s expenditure on 46 321 chemical toilets for informal settlements amounts to an astronomical R664,7 million per year (VAT excluded).
The Mayoral Committee Member for Finance, Jongizizwe Dlabathi, confirmed this amount in writing to the Finance Committee.
This is not merely poor management, but a sanitation scandal with the Metro squandering taxpayers’ money on temporary toilets while infrastructure development is neglected and residents are forced to endure inhumane conditions.
To make matters worse, this offers no long-term value.
Despite ongoing payments, many of these toilets are unusable and others are not cleaned regularly.
In some cases, the exact same settlement appears on three or four different contracts with the 15 service providers, pointing to duplicated tenders.
While the average cost of these toilets is considerably higher than realistic market rates, there is also no plan for the provision of flush toilets, permanent services or infrastructure development.
The sheer scale of the expenditure creates fertile breeding ground for corruption, tender manipulation and political protection.
How can the Metro justify spending R664 million on temporary toilets, while it reportedly does not have the funds for repairing water and sewerage systems.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) demands an independent forensic investigation into these contracts and immediate steps to prioritise permanent infrastructure development.
Furthermore, the party insists that the Ekurhuleni Department of Water and Sanitation produce a map detailing the location of each toilet and which company services it.
While the Freedom Front Plus also wants a moratorium on new contracts for the supply of chemical toilets, the party will further request that Ekurhuleni conduct a cost-benefit analysis of how the R664 million could be used to build permanent toilets and sewerage networks.
Ekurhuleni’s chemical toilet system is facilitating wasteful expenditure, tender politics and infrastructure paralysis.
The Freedom Front Plus will not allow public funds to be squandered while poor communities are subjected to inhumane living conditions.
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