Two weeks ago a mom tried again to kill her drug addict daughter, this time by crushing sleeping pills into her coffee.

Cape Town - Two weeks ago a 44-year-old Wallacedene mother tried to kill her eldest daughter by crushing over the counter sleeping pills into her coffee.

It was her second attempt to end her daughter’s life. Earlier she had put rat poison in her daughter’s coffee but another of her daughters caught her in the act and destroyed it.

“I was angry but I was not scared because I wanted her to die.” These were the tormented words of Felicity Dirks, who spoke at an early Women’s Day event, “Mothers united against Drugs”, on Tuesday at the Kraaifontein Civic Centre.

Hosted by the Kraaifontein SAPS and the Kraaifontein ABBA Network, a local drug action committee, it united mothers who were struggling with children or husbands who abused drugs and alcohol.

Sharing her story, Dirks said that her 26-year-old daughter dropped out of her final year of law school five years ago. Her drugs of choice were Mandrax “buttons” and tik. Dirks said her breaking point came when her daughter started luring her younger sisters, aged 21 and 17 to drugs. “She knows I tried to kill her. It’s like I’m a bad mother… I’m failing my children.”

Three other mothers also shared their stories. The mothers were comforted by Ellen Pakkies of Lavender Hill who strangled her tik-addicted son Adam in 2007.

Kraaifontein police station commander, Brigadier Gerda van Niekerk, encouraged people to speak out by reporting drug related activities to the police. The police were embarking on surveillance to catch drug lords. “We need to name and shame them so everyone in the community can know who they are and what they do.”

nontando.mposo@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

The DA has beaten the ANC in building a home for a man who said he would vote for the party that helped him first.

Oudtshoorn - The DA beat the ANC to the punch on Tuesday in building a house for a man who has been living under plastic sheeting and who had said he would vote for the party that helped him first.

Hendrik Jansen, 56, had been living in his Rose Valley house made of sticks and sheets of plastic since he was discharged from hospital three weeks ago.

Human Settlements Deputy Minister Zou Kota-Fredericks, the ANC provincial campaign manager and the DA’s Social Development MEC Albert Fritz visited Jansen and promised to help.

The two parties wrapped up by-election campaigns on Tuesday by driving in convoys, playing kwaito music from party-branded vehicles on the dirt roads of Rose Valley in Ward 6 in Oudtshoorn.

Of seven by-elections across the Western Cape on Wednesday, three are in Oudtshoorn and one each in Bitou, George, Overstrand and Berg River municipalities.

In Oudtshoorn, the ANC has to win all three wards to keep control of the municipality after its three councillors resigned to join the DA a few months ago.

The DA needs to win one ward to tip the municipality into its hands.

Kota-Fredericks went door-to-door as part of her department’s housing imbizo, but was accompanied by ANC members all dressed in yellow T-shirts.

Fritz campaigned for the DA on the back of a bakkie and visited voters.

“All two parties promised they would build me a house and I would vote for the party who helped me first,” he said.

Jansen said he lost the spot where his previous home was built.

“When I came back from the hospital other people built their house there and the woman who I bought the building material from said I owed her R200, so she took it back. So I made a house out of this plastic sail,” he said.

Jansen’s house doesn’t have a door.

“So when I leave my house I have to take all my food with. People steal it,” he said.

Fritz said he visited Jansen and promised him the DA would build him a house before the day ended. Kota-Fredericks and Oudtshoorn mayor Gordon April also visited him and promised to help with building material.

Earlier, Kota-Fredericks visited the one-roomed wooden house of Sarah Laverlot, 47, where she and her husband, Phillip, and four children live.

ANC MPL Dorothea Gopie told Laverlot that Kota-Fredericks said the government would get building material to her within the month so she can build an additional room.

The DA was first to help Jansen.

DA candidate Christine Muller delivered sheets of corrugated iron, wood, nails, a window and a door to him.

DA volunteers Elzane Saptou, 25, and Purlton Samson, 23, started building a few hundred metres from his old house on Tuesday night.

They had to stop when it got too dark. There is no electricity in Rose Valley, five houses use one flushing toilet and water taps are communal.

Saptou and Samson said they hoped to get paid by the DA for their work, since they didn’t have work either.

“Work is hard to get here in Oudtshoorn. You have to fight for it,” said Saptou.

Politicians from both sides made promises of new houses, work and bursaries to voters here to win crucial by-elections to determine who controlled the Klein Karoo town.

Kota-Fredericks held a housing imbizo in Bridgton.

The Human Settlements Department handed out yellow T-shirts – the same colour as the ANC T-shirts.

The shirts had a silhouette of Nelson Mandela and the words: “Do it for Mandela.”

Kota-Fredericks ended her address to the imbizo: “I want you to give me the assurance when I come back (to Oudtshoorn) it must still be an ANC municipality.”

The seven polling stations in Oudtshoorn were set to be open from 7am until 9pm, and 11 972 people are registered to vote in the area.

Cape Times

A Cape Town policeman who fled after shooting his wife dead, is behind bars.

Cape Town - A Cape Town policeman who fled after allegedly shooting his wife dead last night is behind bars.

Police spokesman André Traut said it was alleged the policeman, who is based at Kuils River, shot and killed his 40-year-old wife at their home in Silwood Heights, in Kleinvlei, during an argument.

“He fled the scene with his service pistol and his private motor vehicle,” Traut said.

An investigation had led police to a home in Delft early this morning, where the policeman surrendered himself.

The policeman faces a charge of murder and is due to appear in court within 48 hours.

At the time of publication the woman had not been named.

Cape Argus

A cash van rolled into the back of a Land Rover and got stuck on its tow bar in Cape Town during a peak hour.

Cape Town - A cash van rolled into the back of a Land Rover and got stuck on its tow bar on the incoming elevated highway during a peak hour on Wednesday morning.

The incident was one of nine minor, but disruptive, fender-bender collisions on wet city roads today, said Cape Town traffic spokesman Richard Coleman.

Coleman said the collisions, due mainly to bad driving on wet roads, were spread across the metropolitan area, from Strand and the city centre to Brackenfell, Khayelitsha, Milnerton and Wynberg.

Nobody was seriously injured but most of the incidents caused traffic delays, some serious. Special equipment had to be brought in to lift the van off the Land Rover’s tow bar, causing a lengthy delay.

Cape Argus

Khayelitsha residents empied portaloos at a DA service day site, slashed the tyres of municipal vehicles and threatened to set them alight.

Cape Town - Municipal workers repairing toilets in Khayelitsha were left stranded for a few hours when protesting residents slashed the tyres of city vehicles and threatened to set them alight.

S-Section residents slashed the tyres of the maintenance truck and a supervisor’s bakkie while workers were inspecting toilets in the informal settlement on Tuesday.

There were seven workers at the toilets. The residents decried the city’s Expanded Public Works Programme

(EPWP), set up to clean and maintain communal flush toilets in informal settlements.

After throwing piles of rubbish on Pama Road, the group of about 60 people collected human waste from some of the clogged toilets and dumped it on the vehicles’ seats. Rubbish was also thrown on both vehicles’ front seats.

Residents threatened to set the vehicles alight, despite a heavy police presence. Resident Phuthumile Mkiva said they were supposed to meet EPWP manager Last Nondumo on Tuesday to discuss their concerns. Local councillor Luvuyo Hebe was also to attend. However, Nondumo did not arrive.

When residents called Nondumo’s office they were told a meeting would be arranged for Friday.

“That is too late. We just saw that these people were playing games. We don’t mind cleaning these toilets ourselves. That’s what we did before the city introduced this programme. If they don’t work with the community these protests will continue,” said Mkiva. Another resident, Sipho-sethu Runqu, said the programme was presented as a community-based project, but there was no community involvement. He said 17 people from the community had been employed but their contracts ended in June. In July one person was employed.

The police went to Hebe, who asked the protesters to be calm and disperse. He said he would arrange a meeting with Nondumo but “there isn’t much I can do to prevent the protest”.

On Monday, a group carrying portable toilets emptied the contents at the DA’s recruitment table 1 in Site C and on a vehicle outside.

DA provincial leader Ivan Meyer said ANC Youth League convener Muhammad Khalid Sayed should give the names of those responsible to the police.

Meyer said Sayed had confirmed on national TV that a group that had dumped faeces on the steps of the provincial legislature on Monday were league members.

Pressed last night, Sayed said he had checked and the protesters were not league members.

As much as the league sympathised with communities protesting against inadequate sanitation, they did not support their methods.

“Instead of spewing propaganda about the ANC Youth League the DA should focus on addressing the sanitation crisis in the Western Cape.”

xolani.koyana@inl.co.za

Cape Times

SA's drug advisory body will look into whether or not drugs should be decriminalised or controlled.

Cape Town - South Africa’s advisory body on substance abuse will look into whether or not drugs should be decriminalised or controlled, says a member of the body.

“We do, as the Central Drug Authority, need to keep an open mind,” Peter Ucko, an executive committee member, told the Cape Times yesterday.

The Central Drug Authority formulated the National Drug Master Plan for 2013 to 2017 - the country’s blueprint on substance abuse that was approved by cabinet about a month ago and implemented with immediate effect.

When it came to decriminalising dagga, the master plan said an in-depth probe was needed to look into whether or not this was needed in South Africa.

On Monday the Cape Times published an article in which a crime researcher and criminologist said decriminalising drugs would result in gangs significantly weakening as their main source of income would be ruined.

The idea, rejected by some authorities, including Community Safety MEC Dan Plato, resulted in heated debate on the Cape Times Facebook page.

On Tuesday Ucko said there was a “strong movement” in South Africa and other countries leaning towards decriminalising dagga.

“The Central Drug Authority would be remiss if it did not consider all meaningful scientific options which can be applied and implemented in the real world,” he said.

Ucko said the authority’s stance on implementing any strategy was that the strategy needed to be evidence-based.

“Whatever we do must be evidence-based. We want science. We want research,” he said.

“In South Africa and around the world we have a war on drugs.”

Ucko said “if you remove the war by making drugs legal” it did not mean the authority would stop acting and focusing on what it was meant to.

He explained the master plan focused on reducing the supply of and demand for drugs, as well as the harm caused by using them.

Ucko said investigating drug policies, one of several things the Central Drug Authority needed to do when looking at controlling drugs, was ongoing.

He said drug policy models that other countries, including Holland and Portugal, were following would be looked at.

According to a Netherlands government website, “soft drugs” including dagga could be sold from coffee shops there “under strict conditions”.

The website said the idea behind this was so that dagga users did not need to buy dagga from illegally operating dealers as this would increase their chances of coming into contact with hard drugs.

About 12 years ago the Portuguese government decriminalised all drug use. Ucko said aside from legislative models used elsewhere, research from those countries would be looked at to gauge the results, implications and effectiveness of the models.

caryn.dolley@inl.co.za

Cape Times

The man arrested in connection with the rape of a four-month-old baby and a seven-year-old boy has been released.

Cape Town - The man arrested in connection with the rape of a four-month-old baby and a seven-year-old boy in Ceres, Western Cape, has been released, police said on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old, who was arrested on Monday, was released on Tuesday night because he could not be linked to the case, Lt-Col Andre Traut said.

“Our search for the perpetrator continues.”

Provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer said on Monday that the baby had been sleeping in bed with her parents when a man snatched and raped her in the early hours of Saturday morning. The boy was in the house and was raped at the same time.

Lamoer said it was believed the man had been staying in the house, on a farm, at the time.

“The child is currently at the Red Cross Children's Hospital, where she had reconstructive surgery, and she will stay there for a long time,” Lamoer told reporters on the sidelines of a police memorial service in Kuils River.

“As you can see, there is a sick society outside. Some men can't take the responsibility and we need to make sure this person is arrested.”

Sapa

Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille is upbeat about improving the living conditions of residents in informal settlements

Cape Town - Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille was upbeat on Wednesday about improving the living conditions of residents in informal settlements, her office said.

“As part of our commitment to redress, and to creating a caring and inclusive city, the City of Cape Town has prioritised a massive allocation of resources to improve living conditions in informal settlements,” city spokesman Solly Malatsi said in a statement.

The city's spending was geared towards the poor and this was reflected in the way the budget had been structured, he said.

“This commitment to service provision is demonstrated in our budget breakdowns over the past six financial years.”

He said: “In terms of electricity provision, since 2006/07 we have increased our budget by approximately 287 percent. This year, an estimated budget of R292 million has been budgeted for electricity provision to informal settlements.”

Malatsi said the city's budget had steadily improved since 2006/07, by about 278 percent.

This year, about R292m had been budgeted for electricity provision to informal settlements, he said.

The budgets for water and sanitation, and the provision of solid waste management had also increased.

The number of toilets provided in informal settlements had increased from 14,591 to around 40,296 since 2006, said Malatsi.

A number of incidents in which protesters dumped human waste around the city were reported last month.

Malatsi conceded there were a number of informal settlements still in need of services.

“Despite this large-scale investment, there are certain informal settlements in the city where we cannot provide certain service types due to prevailing local conditions,” he said.

Sapa

The ANCYL in the Southern Cape accused the DA of using pupils to promote the party during a by-election.

Plettenberg Bay - The ANCYL in the Southern Cape accused the DA on Wednesday of using pupils to promote the party during a by-election.

The African National Congress Youth League said the by-election in Ward Four Bitou (Greater Plettenberg Bay) on Wednesday, was being overseen by Western Cape Education MEC Donald Grant.

“This (has) happened in full view of... Grant who is also the Democratic Alliance's elections co-ordinator,” it claimed.

“As the youth league, we take offence at the use of working class children as DA volunteers when they are supposed to be in class.”

Grant's spokeswoman Bronagh Casey said the claim that the pupils were being used in the “full view” of Grant was false.

“In no circumstance would the (MEC) ... support learners taking time-off school to engage in political activities. He condemns such actions.”

The ANCYL said it would not rest until the “opportunistic tendencies of the DA are exposed as a whole”.

Sapa

Cape Town Muslims braved cold weather at Three Anchor Bay in the hope of sighting the new moon to mark the end of Ramadaan.

Cape Town - Around a thousand Cape Town Muslims braved cold weather at Three Anchor Bay in the hope of sighting the new moon to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadaan.

But heavy cloud cover made the task difficult, and another day of fasting was declared.

Eid al-Fitr will be celebrated on Friday by Muslims across the country.

After breaking their fast just before 6.15pm, Muslims gathered at Three Anchor Bay to pray and to look for the moon.

But the president of the Crescent Observers Society, Sheik Omar Gabier, said it was not sighted.

“It was a bit overcast, but we were sitting at the best spot to see the new moon and we will respect what Allah decides. He controls the weather and the moon and the stars, and whatever he decides we will respect.”

The announcement was made just after 7pm, and while South African Muslims will have another day of fasting, Muslims in other countries will celebrate the end of the holy month today.

Gabier said they looked for more than 30 minutes for the new moon.

Meanwhile, the NGO SA National Zakah Fund started celebrating Eid Al-Fitr early by handing out food parcels to the less fortunate.

Spokeswoman Sakeena Bock said they started handing out the food parcels almost 10 days ago.

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

The Cape Town home of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was broken into as he and his wife were asleep, a report says.

Cape Town -The home of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has been broken into, Eyewitness News reported on Thursday.

Tutu and his wife were asleep when intruders entered their Milnerton home on Wednesday morning, the broadcaster reported.

Western Cape police said some small items were stolen, including keys and remotes.

The couple were not harmed. - Sapa

Professor Cyril Karabus is demanding R2m in damages from the Canadian firm which hired him to work in the UAE.

Cape Town - Professor Cyril Karabus is demanding R2 million in damages from the Canadian company which hired him to work in the United Arab Emirates in 2002.

Karabus’s lawyer, Michael Bagraim, alleges InterHealth Canada failed in their legal “duty of care” to Karabus.

The company was allegedly informed of criminal charges brought against Karabus and his eventual conviction in absentia in a UAE court in 2003.

In spite of this, InterHealth failed to contact him. Furthermore, the firm allegedly refused to come to his aid when Karabus requested legal assistance after his arrest at Dubai airport last year.

While being in the employ of InterHealth Canada, Karabus, a retired paediatric oncologist from Cape Town, treated a three-year-old leukaemia patient at Sheik Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi. The patient died while under his care.

Without Karabus’s knowledge, the girl’s parents brought charges against him after he had returned to South Africa. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to three years and six months in prison in absentia by a UAE court. Karabus was arrested in August last year while in transit at Dubai airport. At the time, he was en route to South Africa.

Bagraim said Karabus’s arrest resulted directly from InterHealth Canada’s failure to liaise with their former employee after he was convicted. The company was in breach of Canadian law in doing so, he said.

The Cape Argus sent queries to InterHealth Canada’s head office in Toronto, but had not received a response at the time of going to print on Wednesday night.

Karabus could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

The bodies of two girls aged 13 and 16 have been found in a dam opposite the Bellville Velodrome in Cape Town.

Cape Town - The bodies of two girls aged 13 and 16 have been found in a dam opposite the Bellville Velodrome.

The girls, reportedly from Belhar, had been swimming with a group of friends on Monday.

After an unsuccessful search on Monday and Tuesday, police divers retrieved the bodies in pouring rain on Wednesday.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut said the circumstances of the drownings were being investigated.

The group of six children apparently hitchhiked to Bellville where they took turns to sit-swim in a tube on the dam.

According to reports the tube overturned and while four swam to safety, two were unable to swim.

The scene remained cordoned off late on Wednesday.

Captain Fienie Nimb, spokeswoman at the Bellville police station, said a family had identified one of the bodies. A second family was expected to come forward on Thursday.

Only then would the girls’ names be released.

natasha.bezuidenhout@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

The Western Cape Education Department may implement a pilot project for African languages in 80 schools.

Cape Town - The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is considering implementing a national pilot project for African languages in 80 schools in the province next year.

Bronagh Casey, spokeswoman for Education MEC Donald Grant, said the department would probably introduce only one language during the pilot phase, most likely Xhosa.

In her budget speech in May, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said a new policy, which would mandate the learning of an African language in all schools, would come into effect next year.

Her department said all schools that didn’t offer an African language in their school language policy, would introduce, incrementally, the learning of an African language as another first additional language in grades R and 1.

But earlier this week Motshekga said the Council of Education Ministers had resolved to support a proposal that provincial education departments consider piloting African languages in 10 schools per education district from next year.

“The WCED will probably, within the pilot phase, consider schools that already have in their employment an educator trained to teach the language,” said Casey.

She said practical details were still being finalised with the Department of Basic Education.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Annette Lovemore, the DA’s Basic Education spokeswoman, welcomed Motshekga’s decision to implement the pilot project.

“This policy will increase multi-lingualism, improving the learning and communication capacity of South Africa’s learners in the process.” She said the plan fell short of the initial promise to provide universal African language coverage in Grade 1 by the beginning of next year and urged the Department of Basic Education “to redouble its efforts to make up for lost time”.

“We trust that Minister Motshekga will commit herself to this policy and work towards ensuring its successful implementation.”

ilse.fredericks@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

It’s back to the drawing board for the City of Cape Town’s liquor by-law.

Cape Town - It’s back to the drawing board for the City of Cape Town’s liquor by-law after more than 90 percent of respondents in the first round of public hearings called for extended sales hours and the sale of alcohol on Sundays.

The city’s liquor trading hours by-law came into effect in April last year, and outlets were given a year’s grace period to retain their trading times until their licences were renewed in April this year.

On March 27, council referred the by-law back to the planning portfolio committee for further consideration.

The first round of public hearings revealed a demand for extended trading hours and the option to apply for a Sunday trading licence, said Garreth Bloor, mayoral committee member for economic, environmental and spatial planning.

The Western Cape Liquor Authority and provincial government have also indicated that they were considering changes to the provincial Liquor Act of 2008. This means municipalities will have to include conditions relating to planning, noise nuisance, safety and security of patrons and fire control in their liquor laws.

The current 2012 by-law looks only at the hours and days of trade.

Since the proposed changes affect the city’s liquor trading by-law, a new and comprehensive by-law needs to be drafted.

“The by-law would seek to balance the challenge of addressing the social impact of liquor trading without causing job losses and damage to the local economy,” according to the report submitted to the planning portfolio committee yesterday.

The new draft by-law makes provision for the city to cancel, amend and suspend the approval of an application for extended trading hours based on certain conditions.

Applications to trade on Sundays can be considered. Other provisions relate to the temporary closure of outlets and seizure of liquor, music disturbances, parking demands and the need to deal with obstructions to traffic. It will also deal with electronic vending and gambling devices at liquor outlets.

A special meeting to deal with the comments and proposals for the amended by-law will be held within the next two weeks.

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

A relative of one of the two Ceres children who were raped says their lives will never be the same again.

Cape Town - A relative of one of the two Ceres children who were raped last weekend said their lives would never be the same again.

A suspect is still at large.

The relative, who is looking after the seven-year-old boy and his mother, said on Wednesday that the child had nightmares, cried a lot and ran away whenever adults try to interact with him.

“When a car stops outside and people get out, he runs away to avoid them.”

The relative said the boy had been a friendly and affectionate child before he and a four-month-old girl were raped by a man early on Saturday.

After the attack, the boy found his way home with the baby girl and alerted his parents to what had happened.

The relative said the boy’s mother, who had been staying with her since the attack, was “too scared” to go home with her son.

The mother did not feel safe since it appeared that the alleged rapist gained entry to their home through a window before snatching the children and taking them about 100m from the house to rape them.

The police had been helpful in arranging counselling for the boy, she said, but both the mother and boy remained severely traumatised and the boy had nightmares.

“My heart is also very sore about what happened,” the relative said.

After the attack, the baby girl was taken to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital where she has had two reconstructive operations.

Red Cross Children’s Hospital spokeswoman Lauren O’Connor-May said she was in a stable condition.

”Her parents are with her, but will not do any interviews or speak to any media,” said O’Connor-May.

A 32-year-old man who was arrested on Monday in connection with the two rapes has been released.

The police are now searching for a second suspect, and an identikit of him, compiled with the help of a witness, has been released.

Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut said the first man could not be linked to the crime.

“Our search for the suspect continues.”

neo.maditla@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Cape Town’s poo protesters have again caused havoc on the N2, flinging poo at passing motorists.

Cape Town - Cape Town’s poo protesters again caused havoc on the N2, forcing motorists travelling on the highway near Khayelitsha, just before the Mew Way exit, to a standstill on Wednesday.

This is the second time in less than two weeks that N2 traffic has been targeted.

A group of about 10 men and women flung faeces at passing vehicles at about 1pm. Some motorists swerved to avoid the protesters, who were standing in the road with portable loo containers full of human waste, jeering and shouting at the motorists to come out of their vehicles.

Other motorists turned back and drove against the traffic, while yet others braked to a halt.

The protesters forced a truck to stop and tried to intimidate the driver into blocking the road.

Several city law enforcement vehicles and police vans arrived on the scene within minutes, but the protesters had disappeared through a hole in the fence leading to an informal settlement nearby.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said police would remain in the area.

The protesters told the Cape Argus team, which was on the way to another assignment and which encountered the protest, that they were not affiliated to the ANC or the ANC Youth League, which was responsible for the July 28 attack on the N2.

A statement they handed to the Cape Argus read: “We have taken a decision to destroy these toilets, we reject them. We have received threats from every corner in the community that some people are opposing this struggle and are going to deal with us accordingly, but we are not intimidated by those utterings.”

Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa said the N2 was closed for about 45 minutes to allow officers to clear the highway.

“The rain… washed away the human waste. We are worried about the safety of the motorists. It can’t carry on like this,” said Africa.

nontando.mposo@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille says the city will spend almost R1bn to improve services in informal settlements.

Cape Town - While the City of Cape Town will spend almost R1 billion on toilets, electricity and water services for informal settlements this year, political resistance and the ongoing “poo protests”, as well as physical and legal constraints, prevent the council from meeting all its service delivery targets in more than 80 percent of these areas.

Mayor Patricia de Lille said the city had increased its budget over the past six years to meet the needs of informal settlements where it could. This year it had allocated a combined amount of R954 million for the provision of electricity, water and sanitation, and solid waste management to these areas. Of this, R14.3m would be used to install an additional 1 300 full flush toilets across the city.

But despite this massive investment in basic services, about 82 percent of the city’s informal settlements could not be fully serviced because they were either on privately-owned land or their location was not suitable for permanent infrastructure.

Speaking at a media briefing to highlight the city’s investment in informal settlements, De Lille said it was impossible to install full flush toilets in high-density informal areas, under power lines, on landfill sites, in a road or railway buffer, on flood plains, in water bodies or retention ponds or outside the urban edge.

Joe Slovo North in Milnerton, for example, was on private land and under power lines, and therefore not suitable for flush toilet infrastructure. The 15 000 dwellings in Vukuzenzele, Europe, Kanana and Barcelona were on an old landfill site.

But despite these obstacles, the city would continue to offer some form of sanitation service, either chemical or container toilet or a portable flush toilet, she said

The portable flush toilets - or portaloos - have taken centre stage in what De Lille described as “organised political resistance” to the DA-led city’s service delivery plans. Two ANC members have been involved in the dumping of faeces at the Western Cape provincial legislature and Cape Town International Airport, while protesters regularly disrupt traffic on key access routes by throwing buckets of human waste.

“It has become increasingly clear that it is only in those communities where there is organised political resistance that portable flush toilets are not accepted. The city is providing this sanitation type on a voluntary basis. The evidence is overwhelming that they are accepted by communities. I would like to call on all political parties to desist from unnecessarily politicising this issue, in the interests of service delivery, not political point scoring.”

De Lille was at pains to emphasise that portable flush toilets were not bucket toilets, but a sealed water-based fully flushable alternative.

“These toilets are cleaned free of charge three times a week by a city contractor and are not bucket toilets.”

About 700 Capetonians still use the bucket system in areas including Boys Town, KTC and France.

City staff have been threatened, attacked and intimidated when trying to service toilets in some areas.

Mayoral committee member for utility services Ernest Sonnenberg said law enforcement officers had to escort cleaners into four no-go areas where they were at risk of being attacked, including in Kanana and Barcelona. Although this number had dwindled in the 16 danger zones identified two months ago when the poo protests started, the city was still having to protect staff trying to clean toilets in these areas.

JP Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security, said later that a third of the city’s law enforcement staff were being deployed to deal with poo protesters on the N2 and other parts of the city.

But despite the challenges, De Lille said the city had increased the number of toilets in informal settlements from 14 591 to 40 296 since 2006. The city was also close to reaching its self-imposed target of providing some type of sanitation for every five households. Only 19 000 households across the city did not fall within this 1:5 ratio, said De Lille.

Efforts were being made to address this shortfall. The city would continue to provide full flush facilities when possible, or would offer alternatives such as the portable flush toilets.

More than 7 000 portable flush toilets have been distributed since April, adding to the 10 000 units already in use.

De Lille listed key projects that would improve basic services for informal dwellers.

These included 7 715 new electricity connections in its supply areas and 8 000 in Eskom supply area households. The city would open its solid waste drop on weekends to improve cleaning services in informal settlements.

An additional 1 300 full flush toilets would be available to residents in areas such as Imizamo Yethu, Masiphumelele and Enkanini.

The janitorial service, introduced in Khayelitsha, would be extended to other informal settlements.

De Lille said that despite these projects, the city was “trying to find a balance with a moving target” as the city’s population increased and the need for services intensified.

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

The ANC says the City of Cape Town is lying to residents about its record capital expenditure for the previous financial year.

Cape Town - The ANC has accused the City of Cape Town of “fiscal dumping” so that it could “lie” to residents about its record capital expenditure for the previous financial year.

Mayor Patricia de Lille announced this month that the city had spent R5.7 billion - or 92.9 percent - of its capital budget, its largest budget to date.

But the ANC said the mayor’s statement was premature and based on untruths. Chief whip Xolani Sotashe said more than R1bn could not be accounted for if all the discrepancies in the 2012/2013 budget were added up.

“We (as the ANC) have a responsibility to play a political oversight role, to inform the public about how the city is functioning.”

He said the ANC had raised the alarm in May when it became apparent that the city would not meet its expenditure targets by the end of the financial year.

The ANC again challenged the city’s budget when De Lille held a media briefing to highlight the city’s record spending two weeks ago.

Speaker Dirk Smit took umbrage over the ANC’s comments to the media, and he ordered Sotashe and councillor Tony Ehrenreich to provide evidence of their allegations within several days, or face disciplinary action.

In his letter, submitted to the Speaker on Wednesday, Sotashe said the ANC was forced to respond to the city’s expenditure claims in the media as the information was released during a media briefing by the mayor.

Sotashe said the city approved a budget of R6.2bn for the financial year of 2012/2013. The city’s actual spending until the end of May was only R3.6bn. The city also committed R1.1bn in unrealised projects in its budget as up to the end of May that together equalled R4.7bn.

This meant there was a shortfall of R1.5bn between the original amount budgeted of R6.2bn and the R4.7bn allegedly spent.

“How is it possible that the city can jump from an actual spending of R3.6bn in May, to R5.7 bn at the end of June?”

He said De Lille had trumpeted the city’s success without having all of the facts.

“We’ve warned the mayor to get rid of deputy mayor Ian Neilson (who is also the mayoral committee member for finance).”

But Neilson said the ANC’s allegations proved “yet again” that the party did not understand how the city’s finances worked. “They have misread contracts, conflated separate items, and misunderstood the phasing of projects.”

Sotashe said the biggest offender was the transport, roads and stormwater directorate, which had underspent by R1.4bn. He said that according to a report being presented to the portfolio committee on Thursday, R632 million was spent on a compensation and scrapping allowance.

But, in the same report, officials said negotiations for the allowance had not been finalised. “The ANC would like to know whether the city has effectively dumped the R632m into another account to get it off the city’s books?”

But Neilson said the negotiations were concluded in early June, and the negotiations alluded to in the report related to 12-year operating agreements.

The ANC also asked how the city could award a R12.7m tender for the N2 Express Service on June 24, and then claim to have spent R5.4m of the funds five days later.

Neilson said: “This is incorrect. The ANC has conflated separate things. The R5.4m spent on N2 Express is expenditure incurred during the year on the major bus station at the Civic Centre required for the N2 Express service buses to dock at in town.”

These stations are already complete and were funded by a previous contract.

Cape Argus

The DA has taken control of the Oudtshoorn municipality after its candidate Jurie Harmse won Ward 13 in a by-election.

Oudtshoorn - The DA took control of the Oudtshoorn municipality on Wednesday night when Jurie Harmse won Ward 13.

The DA needed to win one ward of the three contested in by-elections in the Klein Karoo town on Wednesday.

According to reports, in ward 5, the ANC’s Sonja Biljohn got 965 votes to the 714 which the DA’s Hendrik Ruiters received.

In ward 6 , 1 487 votes were cast for the ANC’s Veronica Williams while the DA’s Christina Muller got 1 171.

Harmse was one of three ANC councillors who joined the DA in May and lost their seats. Harmse won 859 or 54 percent of 1 590 votes. He is a former deputy mayor of Oudtshoorn and a former member of the Independent Democrats.

The ANC won 707 or 44 percent of the vote.

In the 2011 local government elections when Harmse ran on an ANC ticket he took the ward with 49 percent of the vote, while the DA had 34 percent.

DA provincial leader Ivan Meyer said the victory was “groundwork” for next year’s election. He said by voting the DA into power, the people of Oudtshoorn had “rejected corruption”.

“I personally want to thank the people of Oudtshoorn for having the confidence in the DA,” Meyer said.

“If we disappoint them, they must take away the vote like they did with the ANC. They were tired of them not delivering for the people and they took away the vote. We will do our best not to disappoint them.”

Meyer said they would start by cleaning up the streets and painting signs in the town. The party’s focus would be service delivery.

Three candidates from South African Progressive Civic Organisation (Sapco) and two independent candidates also ran in the elections.

By-elections were also held in Bitou, George, Overstrand and Berg River. The ANC retained the Bitou ward with 991 votes to the DA’s 881.

The DA kept the George seat with 1 212 votes to the ANC’s 104. The DA also kept the Overstrand ward.

When the Cape Times called outgoing Oudtshoorn mayor Gordon April on Wednesday night, he said: “I can’t hear anything, the wind is blowing.”

He repeated this while someone laughed in the background. There was no wind blowing in Oudtshoorn.

ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile said the loss was a setback for the party and Oudtshoorn. The DA had been in charge of the municipality, but had failed to deliver.

“We went into the by-election with the hopes of defending the municipality,” he said.

“Clearly the loss in Ward 13 shows we need to do more work in connecting with the coloured middle class, which has always understood the ANC’s policies. We have done the first step, reconnect with the ANC base, the poor.”

cobus.coetzee@inl.co.za

xolani.koyana@inl.co.z

Cape TImes, Sapa