Photo Supplied by Mayor’s Office: Image of BM Section Residents with Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, MMC Zahid Badroodien, and City of Cape Town Officials.
On 23 May 2025, the Politics and Urban Governance Research Group (PUG) co-hosted a workshop on sanitation service delivery with the City of Cape Town (CoCT) and residents from BM Section in Khayelitsha. The workshop aimed to improve communication between residents of BM Section in Khayelitsha and the CoCT, and help address long-standing challenges in fault reporting and service responsiveness. Although CoCT provides container-based toilets to informal settlements, residents in areas like BM section in Khayelitsha still report poor access to sanitation and that toilets are often in states of disrepair. The City has various fault reporting channels, including a toll-free number, an SMS line, a WhatsApp channel, the CoCT App and the C3 fault reporting system. One reason for poor service delivery is the inaccessibility of the current reporting systems for residents due to a lack of access to, and awareness of, these different channels. Last week’s PUG-facilitated workshop gave residents an opportunity to share their daily challenges with reporting faults related to municipal sanitation and basic services. It also served as a platform to co-create solutions for improving communication between Khayelitsha residents and CoCT.
In 2024, PUG conducted research as part of our Scaling up Off-Grid Sanitation project, in partnership with the Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC) – CoCT Research Programme. This research aimed to assess communication and engagement between informal settlement residents and the City regarding Container Based Sanitation (CBS). The research focused on two main questions:
The project included workshops around 30 residents from BM Section in Khayelitsha, weekly sanitation reporting by 20 residents between May and July 2024, a smartphone-based survey with 30 randomly selected residents, and a Photovoice exhibition where residents showcased their sanitation realities to CoCT officials. The project findings highlighted the need for accessible reporting systems, residents’ involvement in sanitation maintenance, and an improved understanding the root causes of sanitation issues. These efforts strengthened collaboration and deepened resident-City engagement regarding CBS sanitation solutions.
Officials from the CoCT provided an overview of sanitation services that are currently provided in informal settlements, which include communal ablution blocks, chemical toilets, and portable flush toilets. They also presented findings from their research and gave a live demonstration of the City’s digital and telephonic fault-reporting systems. City representatives acknowledged communication gaps and committed to evaluating feedback from the workshop as part of an ongoing review of service delivery mechanisms.
After presentations from PUG and City Officials, BM Section residents, City of Cape Town officials and the Mayor were divided into groups where they brainstormed three ways residents would like to report faults and service requests reflecting on what already works and what can be improved. The session was followed by a feedback session on what each group discussed and everyone got a chance to vote on the idea/s they liked the most. Speaking after the session, a resident from BM Section reflected that:
“I think for me what worked today was the fact that City officials and the Mayor are here today to listen to us. They came to see the complaints we talked about during the PhotoVoice research. Another thing that worked for me is that the City is open to hear of other ideas we have as community members that help improve communication when we have complaints.” – Response 2 (Female, Yellow Group)
Another participant reflected: “We were given a warm welcome, we learnt a lot. Before we didn’t get this, what I like is that we were listened to and attended to as people living in informal settlements. Before we had a lot of complaints sent to the City of Cape Town but now they were able to come and discuss possible solutions together. We worked well together and we are able to see that there are some ways in which we can get what we want. Although we haven’t succeeded yet we would now like to receive feedback on some of the suggestions we put forward and agreed to. We hope that what was discussed here can move forward so that we are finally able to get what we have always wanted. We are also thankful to have sat with the mayor…. We feel happy” (Participant 2, Blue Group)
This workshop marks a hopeful turning point for BM Section and potentially other communities across Cape Town, signalling a move towards a more responsive, inclusive, and citizen-centred model of urban governance. PUG has committed to bringing together the discussion and solutions co-created during the workshop into a report and supporting a follow-up workshop for the City officials to provide feedback for workshop participants on how the workshop discussions have been taken on board. Speaking after the session, a representative from PUG emphasised the importance of centring residents’ voices in shaping public services:
“The BM residents workshop with the City of Cape Town on ICT systems was impactful because informal settlement residents had an opportunity to raise their concerns and propose solutions directly to the people in charge of addressing issues. It was an impactful workshop because it is not everyday business that you would find government, academia, community members, and NGOs in one space deliberating on issues that affect people in informal settlement[s]…Another impact is that the workshop was grounded with the idea of collaborative solutions both from the City and BM residents not through protest and confrontation…It is through centring the voices of the people that issues and concerns about public service will be addressed. All the answers to people’s problems are within the people.” – Sindisa Monakali, Research Assistant at PUG Research.
To read more about findings from our CHEC Project, download attached document.
