A Philippi oupa is kwaad with City of Cape Town officials who dumped 15 toilets in his front yard and left it there for nearly a year.
The angry man who lives in the Klipfontein Mission Station, says the City is wasting taxpayer’s money by purchasing the toilets and then abandoning the concrete stalls which have now attracted skollies to his property.
Derek Anthony, 65, says he fears for his life after skelms robbed and shot a security guard along this stretch of road just a week ago, and is pleading with the City to take away the empty toilets so they can be used where they are needed.
“I have been living here for just over nine years but in April 2019, the officials came to the Klipfontein Mission Station to provide toilets for the houses where people still use those pit toilets,” he explains.
“They came here and dropped 15 of these big concrete blocks that the toilets must go in and said they needed to leave it here for storage.”
The elderly man says he agreed to it, but weeks went by and the officials never returned.
“That was April, they just never came back and these things are a security risk because the skollies and the skelms use it as a hideout,” he says.
P!SSED OFF: Philippi oupa says the City has not collected the 15 toilets they dumped at his Klipfontein Mission Station home. Picture: Leon Knipe
“When I pull my car out, I can’t see what is happening here, anyone can just jump out.
“Just last week they robbed a security guard here and took his gun and even shot him.
“Now imagine what they will do to me?
“The City is wasting taxpayers’ money, I wonder how much one of these costs?”
Anthony says people passing through Philippi have even approached him looking to buy the toilets.
“I keep telling them it’s not mine, I cannot sell it. But I am tired.
“I went to the Fezeka Subcouncil and the lady said they were going to remove it, but still nothing.”
Mayco member for water and waste services, Xanthea Limberg, confirms the toilets were placed there by officials and says each toilet costs the municipality R5500.
ARRANGEMENTS: City’s Xanthea Limberg
“The City’s Informal Settlements Department made arrangements with the community leadership to install additional toilets, however the only structures available did not have doors fitted,” Limberg says.
“While there has been a delay in the procurement of the doors, a tender has now been awarded, and the City intends to meet with community leadership as soon as possible to identify where these structures should be placed, after which they will be installed.
“We hope to have completed installation by the end of next week.”