Cape Town informal settlement residents say 140 households share two working toilets
Written on
Residents of the Constantia informal settlement in Mfuleni say about 140 households rely on two working toilets and illegal electricity connections, more than 20 years after they were moved to the site temporarily following a fire.
Residents of the Constantia informal settlement in Mfuleni, Cape Town, say they have been left without adequate basic services for more than 20 years, with about 140 households relying on just two working toilets and illegal electricity connections, the Cape Times reported. The community says it was moved to the area temporarily in 2004 after their homes in Khayelitsha were destroyed by fire, and that repeated promises to relocate them to a suitable site have not been fulfilled.
Nokuthula Xozwa, who has lived in the settlement since it was established, said two young girls died a year ago after being electrocuted by illegal connections. "We were moved here from another area in Khayelitsha, after our shacks burnt in 2004. The City said they will be preparing a decent area where we can rebuild our lives. Since then, nothing has happened. It has been just one promise after another," she said.
Nolufefe Nangu, another resident, said only two of the six toilets available to the community were working and that residents had to clean them themselves. She said women were afraid to use the toilets at night because of crime and unreliable electricity, and that the lack of power left residents vulnerable after dark.
Ward 114 councillor Ernest Madikane said the settlement was included in the City's plans but asked residents to be patient, noting that many informal settlements around Mfuleni have existed for longer. He said the electricity issue would not be possible to solve for the area, and that a further challenge is that new people sometimes arrive and erect shacks when residents are moved elsewhere.
The City of Cape Town said it had employed more than 250 Expanded Public Works Programme janitors since September 2026 to help maintain more than 5,000 City-owned full-flush toilets in informal settlements, and planned to recruit more by December. MMC for Water and Sanitation Alderman Zahid Badroodien said the appointments form part of the Water and Sanitation Directorate's efforts to support communal sanitation facilities, and that janitors had already been deployed in Witsand, Khayelitsha, Mfuleni, Imizamo Yethu, Philippi, Fisantekraal, Masiphumelele, Strand, Village Heights and Delft.