The appalling condition of the town’s public toilets under municipal management has elicited many protests over the past couple of years.

Recent complaints centred around the problem that people had to pay to use the toilets and still found them in a horrendous condition.

"At the public toilets in Burger Street, opposite Solly’s, we found people who are not municipal employees charging us money to go in. But when you go in, you find that it is not clean. It is still in the same bad condition as the past two to three years," Mr Jeremiah Gohell of the Hlanganani Concerned Group said.

The matter was raised at a forum between managers and directors of the Makahdo Municipality and structures on May 8

Official municipal spokesperson Mr Peter Magwala said in a press conference on May 14 that the situation at the public toilets had improved, although it was not yet satisfactory. The municipality deployed an interim measure to solve the problem of the dirty toilets by outsourcing the job of cleaning them.

"That is why people charge money and that measure will stay."

Mr WAS Nel of Louis Trichardt said this week that he was now hesitant to use public toilets in town after he was greeted by terrible smells and rude attendants. When in town recently, he used the toilet in the civic centre, which, he said was in just as appalling a condition.