iWorld cup iyeza.  Sonwabile, kodwa ziphi iitoilets? The World cup is coming.  We are happy, but where are the toilets?

It’s the 31st of December 2010, and looking back, we would like to remember how Bafana made it to the finals, surprising everyone by winning the world cup. By the looks of it, we will have a lot more to remember 2010 by, other than the world cup. Instead, we will remember that moment of madness when City of Cape Town officials, under heavy police protection and armed with hacksaws, hammers and elbow grease, removed the now uncovered toilets, and the only place where an already impoverished community could answer Mother Nature’s call. If this was a game of chess, it was the exact move the ANC-youth league wanted to illicit from the DA-lead municipality. A more appropriate response from the City of Cape Town would have been to give the community the many unused concrete enclosures and left the youth-league to make the next move.

So what was the thinking behind this attitude of, ‘we’ll show them who runs the city’ approach to dealing with this situation? Was there actual thinking happening at all? An eye for eye leaves everyone blind, so the saying goes. A little creativity and ingenuity goes a long way in dealing with challenges – using force and being vindictive is not sustainable.

So, why this scant disregard for the people who already have so little? Is it because the community is perceived to be pro-ANC supporters and winning their hearts and minds is not a priority? Is it because this community is out of sight of the hordes of visitors from across the world, and therefore they don’t matter? Is it because they are perceived to be outsiders from the former ‘Bantustans’ of Venda, Ciskei.? Or is it because they just don’t matter because they are poor, vulnerable, and dare I say, they are ‘black’ and let’s face it, ‘these’ people from the rural areas are used to relieving themselves in the bush and damn, aren’t they lucky to have gotten toilets to begin with? A horrible thing to say and even to consider, but have we not become complacent as a nation in the face of rampant crime, new born babies dying because of sheer neglect, and so forth? And of course why can’t the naughty ANC-youth league buggers behave just once when the visitors arrive. They can continue with their shenanigans after the world cup – for now, let’s show the world we are united in misery, poverty and discomfort.