Task team set up to advise on sanitation

A sanitation task team to advise the government on open toilets was announced in Pretoria on Tuesday.

The team, headed by ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, had three months to complete its work, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said.

It had been tasked with identifying irregularities and malpractice, the scale of the problem, its nature and its geographic extent, Sexwale said.

He acknowledged sanitation was a problem throughout South Africa.

Open toilets made headlines in recent months and embarrassed the ANC on the eve of the May 18 municipal elections.

The party previously criticised the Democratic Alliance's failure to enclose toilets in Khayelitsha, on the Cape Flats. The ANC was then found to be responsible for open toilets in Rammulotsi, near Viljoenskroon in the Free State, and Tshiame, near Harrismith.

Sexwale said the team would deal with matters in every province and all municipalities. It would report back in January next year with recommendations on policy, legislation and budgeting.