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The DA has submitted a proposal to the Premier, Dr Zamani Saul, as well as COGHSTA and the Department of Roads and Public Works, to urgently set the wheels in motion for a directive to be issued to halt the further provision of buckets by municipalities and provincial government departments.

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina announced in August that 29 out of 30 of the bucket eradication projects in the Northern Cape are completed, with 596 buckets still to be fully eradicated in one incomplete project in Campbell.

Data from Census 2022, however, shows that the Northern Cape remains the province with the highest percentage of households using bucket toilets, at 4.5%. According to Majodina, this is because the Bucket Eradication Programme (BEP) only focused on eradicating buckets where they were identified in certain areas, in 2012. Since then, however, municipalities have continued to introduce bucket systems in formal and informal settlements.

This is in direct opposition to the recommendations of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in 2014, that the bucket toilet system be eradicated as soon as possible in all provinces and that relevant government departments agree on plans, with timelines, for the eradication of bucket toilets in all existing settlements.

We take note that the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) indicated that it will focus on ensuring that municipalities meet revised minimum norms for sanitation, including stopping the provision of buckets and removing buckets from both formal and informal settlements. Given the ongoing erection of bucket toilets, however, this alone is not enough.

The DA hopes that our call on the Northern Cape provincial government to announce a provincial ban on the further erection of bucket toilets in the province is heard and implemented. It is senseless and a waste of critical financial resources, for one arm of government to work towards eradicating buckets while another allows them to mushroom.

Given the DA’s further concerns regarding recent findings by the Auditor General that, from 2020/2021 to 2022/2023, DWS spent less than 10% of its allocated budget for BEP projects in the Free State and Northern Cape, we have also requested clarity on money allocated and spent on the BEP in the province. We also want to know if there are further plans to extend the BEP. I have submitted a letter to DWS in this regard.

It is time to bring an end to the usage of the demeaning bucket toilet system in the Northern Cape, which is an affront to human dignity.

Issued by Harold McGluwa, MPL - DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader