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Cape Town - Only 36%, or 188 out of 528 toilets visited during a social audit on Cape Town's janitorial services, were found to be clean inside, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) said in a report released on Wednesday.
Twenty-eight percent of the toilets were in a dirty condition, while 21% were very dirty.
The report stated that cleaning toilets was the janitorial service's primary function. These findings indicated that the service was failing residents.
Three-quarters of 193 residents surveyed said their toilet was usually locked.
This was also a problem for the janitors, who said they could not easily access toilets to clean them, slowing down the cleaning process.
Only seven percent, or 14 of the 193 residents asked, said janitors cleaned toilets in their area seven days a week, while a third said toilets in their area were cleaned only once a week.
Some residents had opted to keep the toilets clean themselves.
"At the public hearing, premier Helen Zille said that it is not a bad thing for residents to clean toilets themselves, pointing out that she cleans her own toilet at home," the SJC said in the report.
The social audit also found that janitors were not equally distributed in all areas, and the provision and replacement of cleaning and maintenance equipment appeared to be inconsistent.
The SJC drew up a list of demands to the City of Cape Town in relation to the janitor service. These included repairs of all broken toilets, plans for how janitors would be evenly distributed in the informal settlements and an effective strategy to deal with the problem of locked toilets.
