The department has attributed the delay of the programme primarily to financial constraints. This is according to the DA’s David van Vuuren who was commenting on the Department’s appearance before the Free State Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts and Finance last week to brief them about the progress of the eradication of bucket toilets in the province.

The Department’s spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau, confirms the delay, stating that aside from financial constraints, there is a second reason behind the delay. He says the department needs to engage with and get authorisation from National Treasury for the department to make use of their preferred bidder that they have recognised in order to fast track the process. He says “if we go out on open tender it will push back this project even further”.  David van Vuuren says the Department said it had incurred additional expenditure due to the installation of a grey water system in towns like Clocolan. The grey water system were installed because of the water crisis in the Free State.

The above-mentioned challenges have resulted in the Department half erecting 16 823 toilets in the Free State. The top structures, which cost R15 000 each,  do not contain the bulk infrastructure and this in turn has drawn much criticism from Van Vuuren, who states that from his estimations the top structures should not cost more than R5 000. Ratau emphasises that the more than 16 000 top structures that have been built, are a part of the original target of 22 085 toilets that need to be erected by June 2018. Ratau states that “in the delivery of infrastructure, everything won’t happen at once”. He calls some of the criticism disingenuous, saying that the Department is engaging with the Provincial Government and National Treasury.

This comes after OFM News reported in 2016 that according to the National Department of Water and Sanitation the Free State still has the largest number of bucket toilets in the country.

OFM News