Portable toilets to the rescue for Sandton Gautrain commuters – as water cuts bring its landlord to the table

Four double carrier portable toilets located at Gautrain Sandton's Public Transport parking lot after the City cut off the station's water supply on Monday. Bombi Mavundza/Business Insider South Africa

• Portable toilets have been set up at the Gautain station in Sandton after the City of Johannesburg turned off its water supply.
• The city says the station landlord, Cedar Park Properties, owes it six years worth of utility fees, amounting to R8 million.
• Lawyers for the company are due to meet the City on Thursday. 
• For more stories, go to Business Insider SA.

The landlord for the Gautrain station in Sandton is due to meet with the City of Johannesburg on Thursday to find a solution to what the City says is an unpaid R8 million utilities bill – which has seen water to the station shut off.

According to Happy Zondi, spokesperson for the City's MMC for Finance, Cedar Park Properties, through their lawyers, have reached out to the City in an attempt to find a way forward.

The City cut off the station's water supply on Monday.

Read also: Cars are left abandoned at Gautrain stations - running up massive parking fees

According to the City, the landlord, a company linked to Regiments Capital, did not pay for municipal rates and services after the registration of the property in its name in 2013 other than R600,000 last year.

"Since then, no further payments were made by the landlord and the debt ballooned to R8 million by July 2019," said the MMC of Finance, Funzela Ngobeni in a statement.

Portable toilets – complete with basins – now stand at Gautrain Sandton's public transport parking lot.

Read also: The Gautrain wants to use levies paid by people across South Africa – such as vehicle registration fees – to fund much of its huge planned expansion

Bombi Mavundza/Business Insider South Africa

On Wednesday the Gautrain appealed to the City to turn the water back on, TimesLive reported, saying it has "health and hygiene concerns" for a station that serves 20,000 people every day. 

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