Sunday Times E-Edition

New toilets case flushed down pan in high court

Lawyer loses urgent bid to stop Eastern Cape school from replacing pit latrines

By PREGA GOVENDER

● A lawyer told a high court that if new toilets at a school were built close to his family’s homestead it would put their lives in danger “when the smell and germs burst out”.

But Loyiso Mangxola’s urgent bid to stop their construction at Bolotwa Junior Secondary School in Ngqeleni in the Eastern Cape was struck off the roll by judge Lindiwe Rusi in the Mthatha high court.

Mangxola, an attorney from Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, who was also ordered to pay the costs of the department’s lawyers, brought the application in March after his brother, Mlindeli Mangxola, alerted him to the building of the toilets opposite their 60-year-old home.

The department of basic education, the Eastern Cape provincial education department, the principal and the construction company, Arise General Constructions, were cited as respondents in the case.

Mangxola said the matter should be treated “as one of urgency” because he would suffer “irreparable harm as the toilets will be there for the rest of our lives exposing us to the danger of suffering from the diseases contaminated by the stink smell coming out of the toilets”.

He stated in court papers that it infringed his constitutional right to an environment that is not harmful to his health or wellbeing.

“I find it of paramount importance for the matter to be heard as soon as possible because it will be a difficult task to say they must destroy the buildings once they begin.”

The Sunday Times established that pupils and staff at the school are using open pit latrine toilets.

Bolotwa Junior Secondary was earmarked for new toilets as part of the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) initiative launched in 2018 to accelerate the provision of proper sanitation facilities in schools.

The department of basic education aims to replace pit latrine toilets at 1,549 schools with proper sanitation facilities by the end of March next year.

Mangxola said he wrote to the principal on March 8 asking her “to hold off the process of digging toilets on position nearer to my home because they are going to smell bad”.

“My home and the school are separated by the street with a distance of not more than 10m. I am residing in Gauteng because I am working there but originally I am from the Bolotwa administrative area which is the place where my family resides.”

His neighbours were also against the construction, he said, “but none of them have means to bring the application”.

“The building of the toilets by the respondents on that position constitutes the so-called private nuisance in terms of common law.”

According to common law, private nuisance is an infringement of a neighbour’s entitlement “of use and enjoyment that affects quality of life”, he said.

“I am not against the development that is taking place in school. I fully support it but started to have a problem when the respondents are building close to the house where my family resides.”

He said the school had a large piece of unused land that could be used for the toilets.

“These toilets are not going to be flushing where sewage was going to flow through the pipes, it will be stored … that is why I am saying our lives will be in danger when the smell and the germs burst out.”

Thabang Monare, acting chief director for infrastructure in the Eastern Cape education department, said the old ablution facilities were unsuitable and should be demolished. He said the new facilities were being built 25m from the existing classrooms and some 15m from the school boundary.

Monare said before the exact position for the new ablution facilities was chosen, they obtained average wind speeds and direction from several sources to determine the prevailing wind information in the area.

“The information from the South African Weather Service is that the wind is blowing away from the applicant’s homestead to the northern direction.”

He said the facilities’ ventilation stacks were on the northern side of the building, away from the residence in question.

“The position of the ablution facilities is not going to adversely affect the health, comfort and convenience of the applicant and his family.”

The toilets were being constructed at the new site to satisfy the requirement that they be built closer to the classrooms so that teachers could monitor those using them. It was also a safety measure for the younger pupils.

The previous facilities were unsafe because they were built about 110m from the buildings.

Mangxola could not be reached for comment.

Eastern Cape education department spokesperson Mali Mtima said it was the department’s constitutional mandate to ensure schools have toilets. “A well-conducted survey was done before construction of these toilets.”

News | Education

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2022-06-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://times-e-editions.pressreader.com/article/281672553625996

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