Booysen Park families are fuming as the mobile toilets they share have not been cleaned for two months, forcing them to use the nearby bushes instead.
Up to 10 families share a single toilet and these, they say, have not been cleaned since December 2022 and pose a health hazard.
The area was developed in 2019, and the community has been on the RDP housing list since then.
Khaya Makalima said the contract for the company hired to clean the toilets had expired and Ward 29 councillor Benjamin Nomnqa had promised to resolve the issue.
“Since then our toilets have been full and this company, Ezamantlane, was hired temporarily, but it doesn’t have the necessary tools to do the job,” he said.
He said they had cleared the toilets using buckets while residents looked on.
“This is not the first time the company was tasked with the work and [allegedly] not doing the job properly.”
He said residents then had no choice but to use the bushes, but this also posed a danger of being bitten by snakes or women being raped.
Nomnqa said his office was aware of the matter as the residents had raised it with him.
He said he had consulted with the municipality several times and was told the contract had expired, but that the process to hire a new company had started.
“The community was not happy with the [temporarily] appointed company.”
Ntombizonke Yose said she lived with her eight-year-old daughter and shared their allocated toilet with three other neighbours.
At night, she was forced to use a bucket.
“We live in hell.
“Every day we breathe in the stench of the toilets and nothing is being done about it.
“A toilet was standing next to my shack and the smell was unbearable, ” she said.
Out of desperation, Yose moved the toilet into the bushes as maggots had started crawling into her shack.
“We will get sick because of this.
“Our living conditions are bad and we live like pigs.”
Pamela Pongolo said when they installed the toilets, each one was meant to be shared by five families.
However, as more people moved to the area this number increased.
“Our drains are blocked because we are now pouring waste into them, but we have no choice because we are scared of going to the bushes,” she said.
A community creche in the area was also struggling with pupils unable to use their allocated mobile toilet.
A-Zee Edu Care manager Nadia Meyer said she had been complaining about the toilets for weeks.
'The situation is frustrating.
“The creche is close to the bush and it stinks every day.”
Infrastructure and engineering political head Dries van der Westhuizen could not be reached for comment.
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