Academic literature on the topic 'Public toilets - South Africa - eThekwini Municipality Metropolitan'

This study was part of the VUNA project aimed to develop an affordable sanitation system that produces a valuable fertiliser, reduces pollution of water resources and promotes health. Urine diversion dry toilets (UDDTs) simplify the on-site hygienisation of faeces and allow for nutrient recovery from urine. Social acceptance is vital for the implementation of the UDDT, because sanitation is only effective if the system not only provides a well-designed toilet and effective waste management, but also offers users a facility that caters to their needs and is sensitive to their cultural lifestyle. This study used qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate acceptance, use and maintenance of UDDTs. Key findings indicate lower levels of acceptance of UDDTs among the elderly, who are accustomed to traditional pit toilets. The users aspire to own a flush toilet, perceived to be indicative of household wealth. A dominant concern was emptying the pit and the quality of the building material. Community interventions are required that will promote acceptance, understanding and encourage proper use and maintenance of the UDDT, and may need some technology modification. There is an urgent need for increased community participation to address users' perceptions, attitudes and behaviour concerning the UDDT.

Background: South African cities have been facing challenges since democratisation to meet the expectations of the citizens. The challenges have included fraud and corruption, financial constraints, lack of service delivery and technological progress, amongst others, which were underpinned by weak leadership and governance processes. This article explored eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality’s technological progress and identified that inefficiencies in good governance and the lack of a governance framework have limited digitalisation.Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the progress towards digitalisation and review the effectiveness of the governance processes within the eThekwini Municipality in contributing towards the fourth industrial revolution.Setting: The study was based on the processes at the eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.Methods: A qualitative research approach was used, and the study is exploratory in nature.Results: The study identified that there was limited digitalisation at eThekwini Municipality. Furthermore, governance processes and an overall governance framework were lacking within the municipality. There was also limited support from the national government to address the fourth industrial revolution at local government level.Conclusion: The implications of a lack of a strong public governance framework, and not being supported sufficiently by the national government, mean that the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality cannot compete internationally within the digital economy. The national government must co-ordinate a collaborated effort towards digitalisation, especially at municipal level. A multilevel governance framework, identifying collaboration between the various levels of government and the public, has been identified as the key response in embracing and enhancing the fourth industrial revolution within municipalities.

Background: A municipality is considered as the first level of government that is closer to the people and is expected to deliver to the needs of the people. Political leadership is provided by elected ward councillors with the responsibility of delivering the public services at the local government level and also entrusted with control of the resources of local government.Aim: The aim of this article was to evaluate the leadership characteristics of ward councillors and determine how such characteristics influence public service delivery in the eThekwini Municipality.Setting: The individual leadership characteristics of ward councillors contribute to how decisions are made at the local government level and eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality as the third largest metropolitan municipality in the country is viewed as a strategic municipality.Methods: This article adopted the form of a descriptive case study which employed a mixed-methods approach, using qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. The study found that the leadership rating score, education and experience are key factors in good leadership (experienced less or no service delivery protest). A regression variable plot was used to analyse community members’ responses on rating each ward councillor.Results: The results show that lower levels of leadership characteristics are marred by numerous service delivery protests, and leadership characteristics increase chances of getting service delivery response albeit taking a U-shape.Conclusion: It is recommended that ward councillors undergo a background check and enrol for leadership training programmes immediately when they are elected as ward councillors.

D.Ing. (Civil Engineering)
The thesis investigates the whole life cycle of the community ablution facilities in the eThekwini municipality, and aimed to identify the technical success factors in rolling out communal ablution facilities as an interim measure in the upgrading of informal settlements throughout South Africa. The eThekwini municipality is based on the east coast of South Africa. Approximately 12% of the 3.4 million inhabitants of eThekwini are housing informally in one of the 420 informal settlements scattered around the urban and peri-urban areas. The municipality is responsible for the provision of basic interim services to these informal settlements within their jurisdiction and is in the process of rolling out containerised ablution facilities to all informal settlements as an interim measure. They have successfully provided 302 communal ablution blocks from 2009. The findings of this thesis were based on the rollout of these communal ablution blocks. The thesis is structured in the life cycle of the community ablution blocks. The thesis required a broad set of data from a number of stakeholders in order to understand each stage in the life cycle, using a number of different data sources, such as (i) interviews with the municipality, professional service providers, and the caretakers, (ii) municipal and project related documentation and data, (iii) surveys of the existing community ablution blocks, and (iv) data logging of the water meters at the community ablution blocks. The pre-implementation stages of the community ablution blocks investigated the planning, design and construction stages of the project. In the planning stage, the municipality prioritised each settlement based on a set of technical criteria, such as location to existing infrastructure, transport routes, bulk water and sanitation services, social infrastructure, the population of the settlement; to ensure that all interim infrastructure are considered within an integrated framework in order to reduce fruitless capital expenditure. Each settlement required community buy-in for both the placement and provision of the ablution facility and the selection of the caretaker. The design stage deals with the hydraulic design of the water supply and sewerage pipes as these were unknown parameters. The ablution structure and the sanitary fittings were discussed, but these were not significant in the design due to the space constraints within the containerised ablution facilities. There were significant delays found in the construction phase, which increased the initial estimated time required for construction by a factor of approximately three, which not only places a burden on the municipality to maintain the momentum of the project at scale but also increases the budget required for construction. The post-implementation stages were not found to function as intended. The key success factors in the post-implementation stages were dependent on the quality of the caretaker and the quality of the support given to the caretaker. Furthermore, all maintenance work has to be performed rapidly to ensure that the caretakers remain proactive in ensuring the facility remains operational. The consequence of poor operation and maintenance has detrimental effects on the community, who have to resort to open defecation and other unimproved forms of sanitation. The thesis adds to the shared water and sanitation body of knowledge. The thesis provides both quantitative and qualitative data on the post-implementation stage of the community ablution blocks, an area which is often neglected in practice.

This study was designed to evaluate the quality of informed consent practiced by healthcare professionals in South Africa using an empirical quantitative methodology combined with medicolegal analysis to produce an interdisciplinary thesis on bioethics and medical law. Informed consent is an ethical and legal doctrine derived from the principle of respect for autonomy, whereas the rights to bodily integrity, privacy and human dignity are constitutionally protected in South Africa. The National Health Act 61 of 2003 codified requirements for informed consent by stipulating that healthcare providers must inform healthcare users about diagnosis, risks, benefits, treatment options, and the right of refusal, while taking into consideration users language and literacy levels. However, African communities are inherently challenged by problems of poverty, poor education, power asymmetry, and unfamiliarity with libertarian rights-based autonomy, which could affect informed consent practice. An empirical study was conducted at randomly selected public hospitals in EThekwini metropolitan municipality involving 927 participants; comprising 168 medical doctors, 355 professional nurses, and 404 patients. The study showed that healthcare professionals had limited knowledge regarding ethical and legal requirements for informed consent, and were partially compliant with current informed consent regulations. Barriers to informed consent identified were language, poor education, workload, and lack of interpreters. Most patients attending public hospitals were indigent, but preferred full information disclosure, and a shift from informed to shared-healthcare decision-making. The study recommends that a corps of trained interpreters should be introduced at public hospitals. This will improve providerpatient communications and minimize workloads, increase job satisfaction, and the overall quality of healthcare service delivery. Analysis of recent South African case law on informed consent revealed vacillations between the “reasonable doctor” and “prudent patient” standards of information disclosure which are inconsistent with the jurisprudence from comparative foreign common law jurisdictions. Therefore, South African court judgments on informed consent ought to be re-evaluated to establish a uniform standard of information disclosure consistent with international jurisprudence, current legislation, and constitutional protections relating to human dignity and security of the person.
Jurisprudence
LL. D.

This research is aimed at investigating public participation in street naming in the KwaMashu Township of the eThekwini municipality in South Africa. Public participation in policy decision-making in post-apartheid South Africa has been characterised by conflict and contestation. Authentic public participation in local governance has been the subject of considerable research and the concept is often regarded as an ideal because of the numerous challenges associated with the practical implementation of authentic public participation in post-apartheid South Africa. Decision making in local governance is meant to be grounded on public participation. However, the realisation of authentic public participation in decision-making in local governance remains a challenge for local government in South Africa. In this study, I examine the process of public participation in street naming in the KwaMashu Township. I employed public participation as my theoretical framework. I adopted a qualitative research methodology which comprises of semi-structured interviews and documents analysis. Four key questions are explored in the study are as follows: firstly, what is the contextualization and understanding of public participation in the eThekwini municipality? Secondly, what is the extent of public participation in street naming, in the KwaMashu Township of the eThekwini municipality? Thirdly, how does public participation in street naming in the KwaMashu Township, influence decision making within the eThekwini municipality? Fourthly, how does political party affiliation impact on public participation in KwaMashu Township? Results of the research study indicate that community members in the KwaMashu Township do not share common perceptions of the extent of their participation in the street naming process. The study further reveals that community participation in issues of local governance in KwaMashu, are influenced by political affiliation of community members. These findings indicate that public participation should be detached from party politics for the development of communities in South Africa.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.