In a previous blog post, the origins and legacy of Cape Town’s uneven access to sanitation was explored. The conditions amongst the city’s Townships were shown to convey nothing less than a sanitary crisis. Unfortunately, like much of the municipality’s response to urban inequality, existing attempts at resolving this dilemma constitute a ‘business as usual’ approach. The temporary solutions offered to nonwhite communities merely paper over the cracks, failing to address the fundamental neglect in infrastructure. Taking matters into their own hands, this blog will highlight how citizens became activists, claiming their right to access sanitation with the help of an unlikely source…

All too often has Cape Town’s hierarchy been susceptible to an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ governance. So, what better way to expose the Township’s troubles than mobilising the issue to the places occupied by the people in power:

“no more should protest happen in the township, but in the CBD- it is that place that brought this legacy”. (Ses’khona activist cited in McFarlane and Silver 2017).

And protest they did! As the video below captures, members from the Khayelitsha Township flung faeces across places of political and economic significance: the Provincial Legislature, the Mayor’s car, highways and the Airport in 2013. Cape’s elite were suddenly confronted with their own gross negligence, forced to experience the everyday reality perennially endured amongst informal settlements. 

Led by the Ses’khona (which translates to “we’re here”) People’s Rights Movement (SPRM), their presence was felt, heard and seen, but most of all smelt (McFarlane and Silver 2017). Poolitics was an attack on the senses; a smelly exposure to one of the city’s harshest metabolic processes when uncontained. Their reterritorialization of human waste manifested Township conditions in the urban core in order to raise awareness. This merged the two types of metabolisms which characterise Cape Town. The more pristine and privileged half supported by modern sanitary infrastructure became temporarily contaminated, blurring the lines between formal and informal hygiene standards.

Whilst the state and others may regard these ‘poo protests’ as acts of civil disobedience, why not consider the conditions of Townships before making your own judgement?

Imagine life for the boy captured in figure 2. He and countless others empty buckets of human excrement into open canals. When it rains, these sewage laden waters flood people’s homes and in the summer, the stench intensifies. Through the lens of Township dwellers, their controversial protests become justifiable. A last resort in highlighting abject living conditions unacceptable for any human, let alone children. 

Seven years later, one would hope the protests had been reacted to constructively. Unfortunately, sanitation conforms to the underlying trend amongst my blogs: unequal distribution of socio-ecological services. Local government has verbally addressed the infrastructural inequality, but not physically, with no foreseeable plans to connect Townships with the municipalities drainage/sewage system. 

Poo now stands as a powerful symbol within Cape Town. SPRM’s unorthodox activism not only represents a call for dignity, but also manifests Lefevbvre’s ‘right to the city’ concept (1968). In this context, faeces symbolise a right to basic sanitary infrastructure, which safely contains an everyday metabolic process. Until permanent solutions arrive, Cape Town must expect Township dwellers to continue using poo as ammunition for political recognition.

List of references:

ENCA. (2013) “’Poo protestors’ strike again” (Online Video) Johannesburg: ENCA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HlyN98cZBs; 20 March 2020).

Lefebvre, H. (1968) Le droit a la ville, Paris: Anthropos.

McFarlane, C. and J. Silver. (2017) “The Poolitical City: “Seeing Sanitation” and Making the Urban Political in Cape Town”, Antipode, 49, 1, 125-148.

Ntongana, T. (2017) “Province orders City of Cape Town to clean up Masiphumelele” (WWW) Cape Town: GroundUp (https://www.groundup.org.za/article/province-orders-city-cape-town-clean-masiphumelele/; 20 March 2020).

Robins, S. (2014) “Poo wars as matter out of place: ‘Toilets for Africa’ in Cape Town”, Anthropology Today, 30, 1, 1-3.