More than 242 toilets costing nearly R50 million are standing unused in Mayfield Marikana Ext 45 near Davyton, Springs, and there is no plan to hand them over to the community anytime soon.

Instead, the residents were promised they must settle for stinking chemical toilets. To make the matter even worse, cleaners haven’t received their salary for more than two months.

One of the cleaners, Nomvula Mtshalanga, said the environment she is subjected to work in is unhealthy, especially for someone her age.

“It’s been five months of me working in this project, but we only received one proper check-up, we don’t receive our salary on time, even this month I haven’t received my salary. It is really hard to work in these conditions,” Mtshalanga said.

The area has become known for a high crime rates, with residents apparently finding dead bodies nearby, while some of the toilet materials have been vandalised and stolen.

According to resident Alice Mlambo up to 20 people were murdered in a month.

“The problem with this tender is that none of our people were hired, they came here with their own people even when we did not have jobs,” Mlambo said.

“Residents were not only scared but they are worried about their health, the municipalities have also wasted a lot of money building the toilets.”

Chemical toilets used to be collected twice a week, while now they are collected once a week. Residents complained they do not know who to blame between the mayor and the ward councillor.

The frustrated residents demanded the toilets to be demolished since they were worried about their children’s safety when they played near the chemical toilets.

Their view was the contracted toilets with showers and geysers should be repaired and handed over to residents as soon as possible.

Maseko Masolwa, also a resident of Mayfair Ext 5, said some people had volunteered to look after the site since nyaope addicts had made it unsafe.

“Residents are now also fighting among themselves since they are living in unpleasant conditions,” Masolwa said.

According to eNCA, construction at the site was halted in March last year following court action between residents and the City of Ekurhuleni over who should be allocated a structure.

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