Councillor Shehaam Sims, Mayoral Committee Member for Utilities in the City confirmed that the 282 janitor contracts will not be renewed and that they will be ‘€œrotated’€ every six months to ‘€œensure ‘€œmaximum impact’€. There are currently no services.

The janitorial service kicked off in June following a campaign by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) and was supposed to have employed 500 community members as janitors to clean communal flush toilets, standpipes and surrounding areas, conduct minor repairs of flush toilets and report all instances where more extensive repairs are needed.   Training was supposed to prepare them to conduct these minor repairs.

However, interviews with the now unemployed janitors have revealed that the project hardly got off the ground before it was halted.

Reports, confirmed by an SJC investigation, indicate that it took months for the janitors to be equipped with the uniforms and protective gear as well as cleaning chemicals. Some of the janitors were only given gloves a week before their contracts were ended last month and no training or community engagement took placing.

The janitors confirmed they were not equipped with the training or tools on how to safely clean the toilets, conduct basic repairs to the toilets and taps, negotiate the unlocking of toilets with the community and communicate the project to the residents.

They said that in most cases their reports to the city of more serious breakages were ignored and that they were only given brooms and takes to clean around the toilets.

‘€œWe are still lost,’€ said a former janitor, pointing towards a number of blocked toilets and faulty taps in BM Section, one of the areas that were supposed to benefit from the project.

Fearful that he will lose any chance of reclaiming his job in future, the man asked not to be identified. He confirmed that they were informed on August 13 that their contracts had been ended with no indication on whether the termination was final or whether there was a prospect of their contracts being renewed.

‘€œWe received no training whatsoever, we were given rakes and brooms, so all we were able to do was clean around the toilets and taps. But was positive as the community saw there was some progress, but now they have lost faith,’€ he said.

He added that although the city sometimes to responded to leaking taps and burst pipes, there was little or no response to mechanically faulty or blocked toilets.

The Cape Times visited BM Section on Tuesday. The informal settlement residents make use of communal toilets bordering the N2 highway. Several toilets were without doors and some were overflowing and had clearly been blocked for a long time. The areas around the toilets, most of which had been padlocked with chains by residents, were filthy and muddy. The majority of taps were leaking with some running freely.

The janitors used to work from Monday to Friday between 8am and 4.30pm and were paid R115 per day under the Expanded Public Works Programme from the City’€™s Job Seekers database. It was envisaged that the programme would after six months shift to the City’€™s Community Work Programme with potentially more janitors employed to serve the informal settlements.

At the time of the announcement in May, De Lille said the initial rollout would be implemented in areas where there are high levels of complaints regarding the cleanliness of communal flush toilets, with Sims adding yesterday (SUBS WED) that they were planning to roll it out over five years.

As of June 2012 the service covered 112 areas, but the City had committed to expanding to all informal settlements. A total of R25 million was allocated for the financial year 2012/2013.

 ‘€œThrough mutual co-operation (with the SJC) and a genuine desire to improve service delivery, an innovative and practical initiative has been found,’€ De Lille said at the time of the launch.

Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba had also praised the service: ‘€œThe launch of a janitorial service for all informal settlements in Cape Town is a victory for South Africa and for human dignity. We hope all municipalities will follow suit.’€

However, last night (SUBS WED), the SJC said the failure to effectively implement the service and to communicate with affected residents after more than six months, highlighted the need for the City to urgently release an official policy document and operational plan indicating how the janitorial service will function.  

They said regular site inspections conducted by SJC members revealed serious shortcomings. The SJC released a detailed report following their site visits confirming the complaints detailed by the anonymous janitor.

The report also revealed that it took three months for janitors to be provided with cleaning materials to clean toilets and that none of the janitors were provided with copies of their contracts and most were unsure of their employment period (a violation of the Basic Conditions of Employment act);

The SJC said their concerns had been brought to the attention of the City in June this year.

‘€œWe understand that this is a new service, and have as such given the City ample time to respond accordingly to our concerns.   However, six months on, this critically important service ‘€“ which will dramatically improve health and safety in affected communities ‘€“ is still not functioning optimally and residents are quickly losing faith in the city’€™s abbility to meet it’€™s commitments,’€ said SJC policy coordinator Gavin Silber.    

He added that the commitment had indicated an important policy shift towards local government accepting responsibility to maintain communal facilities in informal settlments and improve service delivery more generally, but that action was now needed.   He cited the absence of a public policy document and implementation plan for the service, which is needed in order to hold providers accountable.  

Sims failed to make a policy and implementation plan available.

The SJC called on the City to produce the documents and respond to their concerns within 10 days.