DA parliamentary leader, Mmusi Maimane, said he was most disappointed after visiting sites in the Eastern Cape where toilets were built for rural communities by Johannesburg-based Siyenza Group.
The toilet saga gained prominence after it was revealed that the company had been awarded the R631 million tender from the Amathole District Municipality to build more than 60 000 toilets, without proper tender procedures being followed.
The Public Protector has also announced an investigation into the toilet tender saga following a complaint from the Democratic Alliance.
Maimane, who was joined to by national, provincial and local government colleagues visited Kwasaki Village in the Nkonkobe Municipality as well as KwaTuba Village in the Great Kei Municipality
"What I found was most disappointing and I felt it was criminal against the people of this particular province. Obviously, after the contract had been issued for the toilets to built, the toilets in the villages that I went to visit the toilets were built on on unstable ground. There was no consideration for the types of soil that would be used. It became very clear and apparent to me that in fact there was no community consultation, they certainly didn't start with the most vulnerable, they started with randomly," Maimane said.
"In fact even after some of the holes had been dug, no toilets had been put up. So, its clear that it became a question of people coming, grabbing what they like and leaving the community with the scars and nothing to show for it," he added.
"We will now await the Public Protector's report. I was also joined to by colleagues not only from the National Assembly but also the Provincial Assembly and Local Government. So, we want, at all spheres of government, to be able to put questions and actions so that ultimately what we all want is for toilets to be built and for the tender adjudication process to be fair and free of corruption. And then subsequent to that we'll be able to see what the findings of the Public Protector's report and that those remedial steps are certainly taken up."
"I will continue to work with the Eastern Cape leadership to expose those responsible for this gross violation of human rights. We will not allow citizens to suffer while those connected to the ANC get rich," Maimane said.
