Community leader Buyisile Booi says toilets in Ndlovini have been blocked for more than a year. Photo: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
Residents in Ndlovini informal settlement in Cathcart, Eastern Cape, say their toilets have been full or blocked for more than a year. People relieve themselves in open fields. Some have dug their own pit toilets.
Ndlovini has more than 500 homes, mostly mud houses and shacks.
Amathole District Municipality (ADM) spokesperson Sisa Msiwa said the municipality installed 40 pour-flush pit toilets before 2021. 
Community leader Buyisile Booi said each toilet was shared by five to seven families, but most residents were left out.
The toilets needed to be flushed by pouring water collected from communal taps, but taps were sometimes dry for months, Booi said. When taps were dry and families depended on water tanks, they could not spare enough water to flush the toilets properly.
They were told that ADM would empty the pits every year.
Booi said ADM’s first attempt to empty some of the pits failed because it damaged the structures.
Then in 2023, the first 100 ventilated improved pit (VIP) toilets for a sanitation project for Amahlathi Local Municipality wards 1 to 15 were installed in Ndlovini. These are now also full.
Former project community liaison officer Loyiso Dastile said some of the toilets were built on wet ground, causing the pits to fill up quickly. He said the contractor had promised to fix them but never did.
Booi said he has been asking ADM to empty the toilets since November 2025. Initially, he was told that the truck the municipality needed for the job had broken down. In January, he received the same explanation. In March, he was told the truck would be sent. It never arrived.
Msiwa said the toilets were inspected to determine an appropriate emptying method, and the municipality is in the process of appointing a service provider to assist with emptying the pits.
According to a 2025 ADM report presented at the Cathcart town hall last month during a roadshow event, 1,250 VIP toilets have been installed against a backlog of 1,496 units across the wards. But funds have been depleted, and the municipality is applying for additional funding.
Msiwa said the municipality acknowledged residents’ unresolved concerns about the sanitation facilities in Ndlovini.
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