PURPOSE
On the 17th of April 2020, the Daily Maverick published an article titled “Covid-19 exposes Ekurhuleni sanitation failures”. The article was produced by the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism, is not the first published by the publication relating to the issues of sanitation in the City of Ekurhuleni. On the 19th of July 2019, amaBhungane also published an article titled “Toilet tender stinks” and on the 17th of April, published an accompanying article to “Covid-19 exposes Ekurhuleni sanitation failures”, titled “Ekurhuleni toilet tender 2.0: Same old s**t?”. All these articles are centred around the chemical toilets that are being provided by the City to residents in informal settlements, and raise arguments ranging from the alleged “rushed job” done with the tender to the costs associated with the provision of the toilets.
On several occasions, the City of Ekurhuleni has responded to the questions posed by amaBhungane in an attempt to provide the necessary clarity around sanitation issues in the City and to aid the investigative centre in the comprehension of the City’s supply chain management processes which have often come under scrutiny in the discourse. We have released statements explaining the process of selection for the awarding of the chemical toilet tender – a process which is highly regulated and transparent. The Bid Adjudication Committee was open to the public, a testament to the transparency of our processes. And yet despite all our efforts at providing clarity and giving a true reflection of the situation with the sanitation issues in the City, sections of the media continue to persist with the narrative of a failed sanitation programme and a “questionable” tender.
In response to these ongoing allegations, the City of Ekurhuleni has taken the decision to write this comprehensive missive aimed at laying to rest a story that seeks to undermine the efforts of the current administration in rendering a dignified sanitation programme to the most vulnerable people in the City. The missive seeks to achieve two things. Firstly, to address the most salient of allegations that are continuously coming up in the investigative stories that are being published by amaBhungane and secondly, to account to the people of our metropolitan municipality about why and how the sanitation programme was done in the manner that it was. As we have always asserted, it is the City’s belief that accountability and transparency are crucial in ensuring the legitimacy of our administration. It is a principle we take very seriously.
STRATEGIC PRIORITY
The promotion of good governance - the processes and institutions producing results that meet the needs of society while making the best use of resources at their disposal.
PROFILE OF THE CITY
The discussions around the sanitation programme in the City of Ekurhuleni must, as with all things, be understood within a historical and socio-economic context. Situating this discussion outside a historical context denies us the opportunity of making sense of the reasons that informed some of our decisions – reasons that are grounded in the prevailing material conditions and facts of our City and its people. Necessarily, before we can present a quantitative analysis of the budget and other matters pertaining to the chemical toilet tender, it is important to provide a profile of the City and a barometer of its sanitation challenges, from 2016 when the current administration assumed office to present.
The City of Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality was established in 2000 following the amalgamation of various councils and municipalities in the eastern region of the Gauteng Province. The establishment of this metropolitan municipality was the logical conclusion to a protracted struggle by the democratic government of South Africa to annihilate the vestiges of our apartheid past – a past that continues to find expression in our spatiality. In merging these historically fragmented locales into one municipality, the democratic government succeeded in undermining the legacy of separate development that had made it improbable to bring about meaningful material change in the lives of the oppressed majority who to this day, continue to navigate the difficulties informed by that legacy. It is this legacy and these material conditions that inform the present human settlement reality in the City, where we have an existence of 119 informal settlements that the City provides basic services, including sanitation services.
The City of Ekurhuleni provides basic sanitation services to these 119 informal settlements through the provision of chemical toilets and ablution block toilets (water borne container toilets), where the current sanitation reticulation networks could not stretch due to capacity, geological conditions, other design factors and land legal matters due to ownership. The City has many wetlands, pans, and streams. In addition to this, we also have a significant dolomite problem resulting from the area’s history of mining. These prevailing conditions compound what is already a challenging human settlements reality in the City because dolomitic land causes sinkholes and the soil structure of wetlands and streams, composed largely of clay, is unsuitable for building. This geological problem has implications for human settlements, which inevitably has implications for sanitation services in the City. It was against this backdrop that the City conducted an intense investigation through its Department of Human Settlements to establish the challenges and conditions of all informal settlements in the municipality. Through this investigation, the City discovered, among other things, that over 95 percent of informal settlements were utilising unimproved pit-latrine toilets type of sanitation that posed a significant danger not only to our residents’ health, but to underground water resources that were under threat of contamination by this type of sanitation. And given the significance of our water resources, in a country that is water scarce, it was a challenge that necessitated critical intervention. This intervention was informed by legislation, which compelled the City to provide services to all its residents including those in informal settlements, basic services such as water and sanitation. The geological as well as socio-spatial realities of informal settlements make the provision of these services extremely difficult. Nonetheless, on the 21st August 2014, the Mayoral Committee considered and approved a report titled “Ekurhuleni Basic Minimum Water and Sanitation Guidelines”. Included in these guidelines was the improvement of the provision to informal settlements from 1:10 to 1:5 ratio in terms of toilet use, to be in line with the National Housing Code of 2009: Emergency Minimum Service Level Guidelines. It was this aforementioned report that informed the decision by the City to seek the services of service providers to provide it with chemical toilets.
DISCUSSION ON CHEMICAL TOILETS TENDER
The allegations that the chemical toilets tender was irregular and that prices have been inflated is an economisation with truth. It is necessary that we provide a comprehensive timeline of events leading to the current situation with the toilets.
The hiring, delivering and maintenance of chemical toilets to the informal settlements within the City of Ekurhuleni on a month to month basis tender was previously awarded to a single service provider. In November 2014, the City took the decision to unbundle the said tender to ensure that there were more service providers who would be able to meet the growing demand for the chemical toilets. Subsequently, after following an open tender process, four service providers were appointed at the rate of the highest scoring bidder as the primary contractor. Appointment letters were issued on the 20th of November 2014. Following these appointments, three appointed bidders rejected the offered rates. The primary contractor, TCM DEVELOPMENTS (PTY) LTD could only supply the City with approximately two thousand units from a total of nine thousand units of chemical toilets that were required to service all the informal settlements. On the basis of the impracticality as defined in paragraph 36(1)(a)(v) of the Supply Chain Management Policy, the Head of Water and Sanitation requested an urgent approval of the appointment of service providers to provide the balance of the remaining toilets. Red Ants Security Relocation and Eviction Services (Pty) Ltd were appointed in March 2015. Another appointment was done in 2016 and extended until the 30th September 2016 to make allowance for transition for a period for contract A-WS 04-2016.
In respect of the contract that was awarded in 2016, the City took the decision to have more service providers available for the provision of the chemical toilets. This was done to mitigate against a challenge that the City had previously been confronted with, whereby the City was reliant on a sole service provider who has been the highest scoring bidder but who, however, was unable to provide the requisite service in its totality. This situation had placed the City in jeopardy as it would have infringed on the citizen’s Constitutionally enshrined right to basic services. The City subsequently appointed a panel of service providers who could be called upon to provide various services as pertains to the chemical toilets, as and when same were required. Sixteen service providers were appointed for the purpose of hiring, delivery, and maintenance of the chemical toilets. The appointment date for these was the 30th June 2016. Each bidder was given a specific allocation on the number of units to be provided. Orders were placed with all bidders to deliver chemical toilets at various informal settlements as per depot requests. A significant number of bidders were failing to respond and were requested to submit their implementation plans, failing which their orders would be cancelled. All bidders were requested to place their toilets before the old contracts expired to ensure the continuity of service to all informal settlements within the City. Most implementation plans were outside of the required delivery time, which would have inevitably resulted in a number of informal settlements being without basic sanitation for a period of time while awaiting manufacturers to produce toilets and supply the City. As indicated, this would have been a direct violation of the citizen’s Constitutionally enshrined right to basic services.
In order to manage and control the risk of exposure that posed a serious threat to human health and environmental pollution, the Department of Water and Sanitation wrote to the Bid Adjudication Committee requesting that district demarcation be lifted to reach the required quantities as per the respective service delivery areas and to ensure better management of the service. The rates of the districts are applicable as per the approved tender rates per district. The City sought approval that the contract be restructured in such a way as to facilitate better provision of the chemical toilets, aimed at promoting service delivery and fairness in unit allocation. The City continuously receives written requests from communities, wherein the City is advised of the demand for more toilets, through various channels including ward councillors, petitions, imbizos, Human Rights Commission, the Office of the Public Protector as well as the Siyaqhuba Mayoral Outreach Programme. Following the receipt of the aforementioned requests, City officials embark on a process to physically evaluate whether there is indeed demand for the request. This process is achieved through the manual counting of informal dwellings within a particular informal settlement. The Department of Water and Sanitation, working in conjunction with the Department of Human Settlements, employ a process of verification and jointly address the challenge.
REJECTION OF SERVICE PROVIDERS
Because tender specifications will consistently improve, service providers will be expected to improve their quality of service. The allegations that the City’s rejection of some bidders had ulterior motives is unfounded. Fifty-six bidders were rejected for not meeting minimum bid requirements for the provision of 500 toilets as per the new specifications. Out of the fifteen service providers who had been part of the previous panel of service providers, four were rejected and their contracts not renewed on the following grounds: • 1 did not bid for the new tender • 1 provided a false declaration • 1 scored less than the minimum score required on general criteria due to previous experience, staffing profile, annual turnover, and size of enterprise • 1 did not have the 500 toilets in possession The amaBhungane article contends that service providers were expected to have the 500 chemical toilets idling. This is not true, as the bid specification stated that “bidders leasing the toilets must be in the position of the letter of lease and the inspection can be done on the warehouse of the leaser”. The City expected service providers to provide evidence that they did in fact have the requisite the minimum number of toilets. This could include toilets that were being rented out and those in current use. The aim was to ascertain that the service provider had the 500 toilet units required, regardless of whether they were idle or in use.
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TENDER
Contrary to the allegations that have been levelled against the City by amaBhungane in various investigative articles it has published, the chemical toilets tender has in fact improved over the years and in the process, saved the City of Ekurhuleni a significant amount of money. The interventions that we have made in bettering the bid specifications have had measurable impacts on the lives of our residents in informal settlements. Social audits for the provision of sanitation in informal settlements were done in partnership with a non-governmental organisation, Planact, in partnership with International Business Partnership of South Africa, where end users inputs were registered for the purpose of improving the level of services provided in informal settlements. This inputs also contributed greatly to improvement in terms of the new bid specification, the following critical areas were improved or introduced:
1. Toilets for persons with disabilities were introduced and are availed on request. 2. There is a requirement for the service provider to have a Project Manager and Safety Officer. 3. The service provider must provide safety equipment for workers 4. In order to manage the costs of the provision of the service, the bill of quantities has a baseline of servicing each toilet at R65.00
These changes in the new bid specification were not included in the previous bid – an indication of the fact that the new bid was improved, and worker safety centred. This foresight on the part of the City is justified by the recent COVID-19 novel coronavirus outbreak that has elevated the issue around personal protective equipment for workers to national discourse. In the absence of safety equipment, workers are exposed to health risks that could be fatal. The City’s decision to include safety equipment for workers in the new tender specifications reflects our commitment to occupational health and safety. Additionally, the bill of quantities was introduced to ensure the management of costs, saving the City nearly R400 million. To make sense of how much has been saved since the 2016/17 financial year, the budget expenditure is presented:
Item 2016/17 financial year 2017/18 financial year 2018/19 financial year (estimated) No. of chemical toilets
16 098 30 795 39 112 Budget expenditure (R000) R379 million
R828 million R872 million Figure 1: Budget expenditure per financial year and number of units rented and serviced in the City of Ekurhuleni
Figure 1 indicates that the number of chemical toilets has increased exponentially since the 2016/17 financial year, while the costs of the renting and servicing of the toilet units has been proportionally kept low. The increase in the number of chemical toilets provided justifies the City’s decision to increase the number of service providers, for it is informed by the material need in communities which the City has a Constitutional responsibility to service.
EKURHULENI IN COMPARISON TO OTHER METROS
It is crucial that in posing critique on the City of Ekurhuleni about how we have conducted our sanitation programme, we provide a comparison between ourselves and other metropolitan municipalities. We must do this to highlight the facts that the City has been trying to articulate, chief of which is the fact that our chemical toilet sanitation programme was a financially reasonable route to take. The provision of sanitation in informal settlements must always be understood within a context not only of history and socio-spatial realities, but also of available resources. And the key indicator of whether or not such a provision is successful must be the impact that it has on the lives of the poor in informal settlements.
Metros No. of informal settlements No. of households Total population Ekurhuleni 119 164 718 600 000 Johannesburg 189 183 895 700 000 Tshwane 197 326 981 425 075 Ethekwini 534 1 159 272 287 000 Cape Town 512 160 000 507 200 Figure 2: No. of informal settlements, households and populations in various metros
Figure 2 indicates that while the City of Ekurhuleni has the lowest number of informal settlements, it has the second highest number of informal settlement population after the City of Johannesburg. This demonstrates that each of our informal households has a higher number of people residing in it than all other metros.
Metros No. of service providers No. of chemical toilets Ratio No. of services per week
Ekurhuleni 15 43 000 1:5 1 Johannesburg 1 10 850 1: 8-14 3 Tshwane 2 3128 1: >15 2 Ethekwini 2 1650 1: >15 3 Cape Town 2 8994 1: >15 3 Figure 3: No of service providers, chemical toilets, services per week and ration of toilet to household in various metros
Figure 3 indicates that the City of Ekurhuleni provides the highest number of chemical toilets across all metropolitan municipalities against which it is compared. And while our rate of service is lower than all other metros, at one service per week, we also have the lowest ratio of chemical toilet to household – three times lower than other metros. This demonstrates that residents in informal settlements in Ekurhuleni have more dignified use of sanitation than all other metros with which we are compared.
Metro No. of services per month Rate per service Cost of servicing per month Cost of rental of one unit per month Total cost of servicing plus cost of rental per month
Ekurhuleni 4 R92.53 R370.12 R300.00 R670.12 Johannesburg 12 R43.36 R520.32 R50.00 R570.32 Tshwane 8 R90.75 R726.00 Ethekwini 8 R88.23 705.84 Cape Town 12 R960.00 R80.00 R1 040.00 Figure 4: No. of services and costs of servicing and rental per month in various metros
Figure 4 indicates that the City of Ekurhuleni pays a competitive rate for the service of chemical toilets and pays the second lowest rate in terms of the total cost of servicing and cost of rental per month. We are second only to the City of Johannesburg, which is the result solely of economies of scale as indicated by the number of service providers (one) that it has (Figure 3).
Metro Total cost of servicing plus cost of rental No. of toilet units based on metro with lowest no. of toilets Cost per month at baseline 1650 chemical toilets Ekurhuleni R670.12 1650 R1 105 698 Johannesburg R570.32 1650 R941 028 Tshwane R726.00 1650 R1 197 900 Ethekwini R705.84 1650 R1 164 636 Cape Town R1 040.00 1650 R1 584 000 Figure 5: Monthly cost of providing chemical toilets in various metros
Figure 4 indicates that based on 1650 chemical toilets, which is the number of the metro with the lowest number of toilets (Ethekwini), the City of Ekurhuleni is spending the second lowest amount in terms of costs per month – second only to the City of Johannesburg that enjoys economies of scale on the basis of its sole service provider.
PRO-POOR PHILOSOPHY AND PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNING
In commencing with our term of office in 2016, we outlined a vivid programme of action to advance a pro-poor agenda where the driving force is a people-centered governance. We defined this agenda as a deliberate and systematic bias to rollout service delivery and economic development opportunities in a manner that uplifts the poorest sections of Ekurhuleni, in line with the pro-poor philosophy of administrations before us. We have been consistent in centering the dignity of our people in all the work that we do – particularly as pertains to those in informal settlements who represent the poorest section of our population. It is for this reason that we have been deliberate in ensuring that the chemical toilets are dignified as the majority of the toilet structures were structurally unsafe for users, posing health risk as they did not meet minimum requirement. The elderly and child-headed households had to ask their neighbours to use their toilets as they could not afford to hire community works to dig a pit for informal toilet at a cost of R500 or more. This informed the improvement of the ratio from 1:10 to 1:5. This is a feat that no other metropolitan municipality has achieved, and we have achieved it because we have been consistent in our commitment towards the improvement of the lives of those in informal settlements. The City of Ekurhuleni has sought to achieve the requirements as set out in the Minimum Basic Services to Informal Settlements, and in some cases has exceeded this by significant margins. And we have been able to accomplish all this while also saving the City a significant amount of money – a fact we have consistently accounted for in our State of the City Addresses.
The citizens of Ekurhuleni have made their voices heard. In the year 2012, most informal settlements burnt down the chemical toilets and ablution facilities, arguing that these were the cause of delaying permanent housing and provision of waterborne sanitation services. This resulted in just above one third of the informal settlements accessing basic sanitation, indicated in the Chemical Toilets Report dated April 2015. When the City adopted the pro-poor agenda and introduced an improved toilet structure and an improvement of the ration from one toilet being shared by ten informal households to one toilet being shared by five informal households, the communities started to request these services that they once rejected. This is not our own hypothesis.
The success of our pro-poor philosophy of governance and service delivery was confirmed by the results of the 5th Gauteng City-Region Observatory Quality of Life Survey released in October 2018. The GCRO survey is a researched and evidence-based assessment of the successes and failures of policy interventions in the eyes of the citizens of Gauteng. Simply put, the GCRO survey reflects the views and sentiments of ordinary citizens on how they feel about the work that the City does for them. It is important to pay attention to this Quality of Life Survey because it presents the City with an opportunity to reflect on how the recipients of our services feel about the quality of life that the City strives to improve daily. This is particularly important for the most disadvantaged members of our communities. Accordingly, the Survey has affirmed the positive impact of our pro-poor governance strategy because the citizens of Ekurhuleni have actively given us a thumbs up and pointed us towards areas of improvement where they are still not satisfied. Overall, we are doing better than almost all municipalities in Gauteng. More instructive is the fact that we are a leader a of our peer-group of metros. We have performed better than all the other Metros in terms of the level of citizen satisfaction in the Quality of Life assessment. In light of the fact that we are the youngest City and with a much more pronounced spatial legacy of apartheid, we are proud that we are now ranked as the City affording its citizens with the highest quality of life in comparison to other metros in the province. Specifically, we are outperforming the other metros in the areas of delivering water services, sanitation services and renewable energy.
This is corroborated by Asivikelane, an initiative aimed at independently monitoring basic services in informal settlements during the COVID-19 global pandemic crisis. The monitoring tool centres residents of informal settlements in its data collection and analysis, looking specifically at issues of access to water, clean sanitation and waste removal. In all categories, more than 60 percent of residents confirmed that the City is providing clean water, collecting waste and cleaning ablution facilities. Regarding the latter, the residents of our informal settlements scored us above 9- percent on the provision of clean toilets.