Lack of toilet facilities a serious problem

IF you desperately need the loo while in the Port Shepstone CBD you will have to find a bush, a wall or tree.

Why? Well, there is not a single public toilet in the town.

A local school teacher, Gumisayi Saidi, has now endorsed what Councillor Carole Potter has also been venting her frustration about in the South Coast Herald of late.

The Hibiscus Municipality cried foul over Carole’s ‘potshots’ and said they were doing their best clean up the town. Spokesman Simon April issued assurances that many projects were in the pipeline.

However, Mr Saidi spoke to the Herald to express his horror and deep concern about the ailing state of Port Shepstone.

“Thousands of people visit the town on a daily basis and we have not one functional toilet in the whole town,” he said.

Mr Saidi recently joined a Herald reporter for a walkabout of the town.

During the tour,  men and women were seen urinating along the fence of a primary school, the big tree next the Port Shepstone library and the community hall.

“The men urinate against the fence in full view of schoolchildren,” he added.

He felt that toilets were so important when it came to health and hygiene.

“When you finish relieving yourself out in the open there is nowhere for you to wash your hands,” he pointed out.

At the taxi rank, the toilets at the main ablution block were nonfunctional. Men and woman were seen openly urinating around the building. The foul smell of faeces and urine was nauseating.

However, people were still seen wading through the muck with buckets to collect water.

Others were eating breakfast or trading their vegetables and food nearby.

Mr Saidi said vendors at the rank  had been trading in these poor and trying conditions for years.

This was of particular concern as informal business people were a vital part of the local economy and he felt there needed to be better synergy between them and the municipality.

While walking through the taxi rank and streets of Port Shepstone, Mr Saidi also pointed out piles of rubbish and litter, abortion stickers plastered on walls and road signs, the broken sidewalks and stormwater drains and missing manhole covers.

He said he had written to Hibiscus Coast Municipality about his concerns, but was frustrated at the lack of response. “They don’t even bother to reply,” he added.

Mr Saidi said HCM needed to be more responsible to its citizens and stop the town from deteriorating by showing more passion.

He believed the HCM should prioritise its resources.

“They will fix and tar a section of a road and then two weeks later they will be digging up the same stretch of road for another reason,” he said, chuckling.

“Don’t talk, be seen doing it. Making a difference starts with each one of us,” he said.

Mr Saidi, who had just completed his bachelor of law degree, said that current leaders should set an example for future generations.

“It’s not a living constitution any more, its just a document for window dressing.

“What has happened to Nelson Mandela’s philosophy that we make the world a better place?”

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