REVELATIONS of more than 1,000 open toilets built by the ANC-run municipality since 2003 in Free State have apparently caught the party's leaders off guard

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe told the media: "Honestly, we hadn't picked it up until now.

"We didn't know about it but we will instruct the ANC in Moqhaka (local municipality) to deal with the issue immediately."

Mantashe described failure by Moqhaka municipality to deal with the situation as "political recklessness".

The ANC toilet saga comes in the wake of a Cape high court judgment that heavily criticised the opposition party DA's handling of the Makhaza informal settlement open-toilet controversy.

The court ruled that the agreement between the City of Cape Town and residents of Makhaza, allowing them to build their own toilet enclosures, was unlawful.

The ANC said the court decision was an indication that the DA did not care about the lives of black people.

At the weekend, Sowetan's sister publication, the Sunday Times, detailed the dilapidated state of some of the Moqhaka toilets, describing how residents have used rusty corrugated iron sheets as covers.

The report quoted a council official as saying the municipality needed R8 million to cover the remaining toilets, but that it only had R4,2 million.

• Meanwhile, the beleaguered Cope suffered another blow yesterday, with Mantashe announcing the defection of the party's former youth leader and MP Anele Mda back to the ANC.

"The existence of Cope has been about spats. No one wants to be in a political party where there are no political programmes," Mda told the media.