The Tshwane metro will open two more ablution facilities in the Pretoria CBD at the end of the month to deal with “puddles of urine and faeces” in the streets.
Metro inner-city regeneration head Nava Pillay said the two facilities would be open around the clock.
He said the metro was still dealing with the cleaning and security logistics at the facilities.
“The city had encountered problems before,” he said.
“We need to make sure we have people who will ensure that the facilities are clean, and that there is enough toilet paper and it is secure.”
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Pillay said eight ablution facilities in the inner city were currently open from 06:00 to 18:00 in areas with lots of pedestrian traffic.
These included Church Square, Bosman Steet station, Marabastad and Tshwane House.
He said facilities closed at 18:00 because they were used by criminals after dark.
“It is not that we don’t want to keep these facilities open; however, vandalism at these facilities seem to be the order of the day,” said Pillay.
“We are basically fixing toilets every second day.”
He said there were instances when toilet paper was stolen within half an hour of being replaced.
Pillay said the metro was looking into ways to secure facilities so that they are open 24 hours a day from the end of the month, starting with the ones with a high number of users.
“We are looking at possibly Church Square where there are lots of people on foot using the facilities.”
He said the facilities were for the public – and not just the homeless.
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“Tthe facilities need to accommodate everybody, no matter what class of society you are in.”
Rekord had received scores of complaints about the lack of ablutions in the CBD.
Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa has also admitted this was a problem in the area.
“The metro is working hard to provide the facilities,” he said.
Jabulihe Khoza, who works at a fashion store in the CBD, told Rekord that only major streets were cleaned regularly in the area.
“In the mornings, there are puddles of ‘green and black’ water reeking of cleaning detergents and other chemicals – especially in the Bloed mall area. This, however, doesn’t help the bad smells as the urine seems stronger than the cleaning chemicals.”
Khoza said in some streets pedestrians had to cope with puddles of urine and faeces.
Khoza said taverns in the CBD also played a role in the stink.
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