With no working toilet, Reginald Monapula cannot host family or friends for Christmas.

• Hundreds of residents in Thembelihle informal settlement in Lenasia have not had their toilets emptied for several months, resorting to unsafe and unhygienic alternatives.
• Residents are sometimes forced to share a single pit toilet among multiple people.
• According to Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala, “internal challenges” have caused the backlog in service delivery.

Reginald Monapula will not be able to host family or friends in his home in Thembelihle informal settlement for Christmas because there is nowhere for them to relieve themselves.

According to GroundUp, the toilets in the settlement have not been emptied for four months and he has resorted to using the bush.

His is among hundreds of families in Thembelihle informal settlement in Lenasia, in the south of Johannesburg, who are in the same predicament.

The “ventilated improved pit” (VIP) toilets were installed by the City of Johannesburg 20 years ago, according to Johannesburg Water, which services the toilets.

Usually the toilets are drained regularly. But for several months now the toilets have not been emptied and residents relieve themselves in the nearby bushes or use the public toilets in Trade Route Mall, about a kilometre away.

Toilets in Thembelihle have not been emptied for months.

Silver Sibiya/GroundUp

Monapula said this December he would not be able to host guests for Christmas without a working toilet. “Some do go to the mall to relieve themselves, but we go to the nearby bushes. What else can we do?” he asked.

Mercy Kalunga and her family live in the same street, in a rented backroom in the yard of a brick house. Nine people share the single pit toilet.

Kalunga says, while other people may dream of better things this Christmas, she just wants the toilet to be drained. Her children have been sent away to family ” to at least take a break from this situation,” says Kalunga’s husband Ishmael.

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Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said as a result of “internal challenges” between October and November, there had been a shortage of vacuum trucks to drain the toilet.

“There are 15 sewer vacuum trucks that service the region. However, due to internal challenges between October and November 2023, only four sewer vacuum trucks were operational for a while, leading to a backlog in desludging.”

She said the problem had been resolved and that all 15 trucks were operational again. But “the backlog incurred during the two months will affect the efficiency of service delivery”.