{"id":236579,"date":"2022-09-08T21:07:01","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T19:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/more-than-20-families-share-one-pit-toilet-in-this-east-london-community\/"},"modified":"2022-09-08T21:07:01","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T19:07:01","slug":"more-than-20-families-share-one-pit-toilet-in-this-east-london-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/more-than-20-families-share-one-pit-toilet-in-this-east-london-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 20 families share one pit toilet in this East London settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Buffalo City Metro Municipality has plans to relocate families living at C2 informal settlement near East London city centre. Many of the residents are unemployed. Photos: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik<\/p>\n

Vuyiswa Booi, 61, moved to C2 informal settlement near East London city centre in 2005 and has had to rebuild her shack more than five times due to fires. \u201cWe are not getting any help from the municipality,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Booi said she again lost all her belongings in a fire last month because their shacks are not formally connected to electricity. \u201cI\u2019m left with what I\u2019m wearing,\u201d she said. The home she rebuilt has holes and leaks when it rains. She relieves herself in a 20-litre bucket and empties it behind her shack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no taps, so we rely on dirty water from a pipe but it\u2019s far from here. We don\u2019t even know where that water comes from. Sometimes the water comes out dirty and smells like a drain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said the only benefit of living at C2 is its proximity to the clinic where she collects her medication and to town for job opportunities.<\/p>\n

Families living there will be relocated once suitable land is identified, according to the Buffalo City Metro Municipality.<\/p>\n

The community was established in the early 1990s but is now overcrowded. According to residents, 20 families share one pit toilet and the rest use the bushes. They rely on illegal connections for electricity. There are currently about 500 shacks at C2.<\/p>\n

Most young people rely on waste picking to survive. Some sell sweets in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here looking for a job. I live with a family member who has been living here for years, said 27-year-old Siphelele Myokwana. He is a welder and has been making chairs to sell to bargain stores. \u201cWe are all here during the week, which is proof of unemployment in this informal settlement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Municipal spokesperson Bathandwa Diamond said the City had recently conducted a study of informal settlements and recommended that residents of C2 be relocated. The land they are living on is not suitable for development, she said. She did not provide details on when they would be moved.<\/p>\n

Diamond said the City is currently doing a land audit in the metro, looking for parcels of land in well located areas to house people. \u201cThis will also assist in curbing land invasion in our metro,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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This pit toilet is shared by 20 families. Other residents relieve themselves in buckets and the surrounding bush.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo City Metro Municipality has plans to relocate families living at C2 informal settlement near East London city centre. Many of the residents are unemployed. Photos: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik Vuyiswa Booi, 61, moved to C2 informal settlement near East London city centre in 2005 and has had to rebuild her shack more than five times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":236580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-236579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/more-than-20-families-share-one-pit-toilet-in-this-east-london-settlement.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}