PHUTI MOSOMANE
LEARNERS from various schools in Limpopo marched to the Department of Education to demand urgent action on the eradication of pit toilets.
Dozens of learners from affected schools told the department that they’ve had enough of failed promises to bring dignity to schools through the eradication of pit toilets.
Equal Education Limpopo Organiser, Tiny Lebelo, told Inside Education that while they will wait for the department to respond, it is no longer about setting up a new deadline but rather delivering urgent intervention to schools.
“We are eagerly awaiting a response from the department on Friday as they promised. We are hoping the Limpopo Education will address our demands but also give us a timeline of how they will address the missed deadline. I think it’s no longer about them setting another deadline now but rather acting on the missed deadline ensuring that all priority 1 schools have adequate sanitation,” Lebelo said.
“It’s important that the LDOE fixes sanitation backlogs in rural schools because these are schools that have been built by the communities and are in need of dire upgrades. We look forward to actually seeing construction occurring at all priority 1 schools to safeguard the dignity of learners in far remote and neglected areas of our country.”
Lebelo said: “Learners cannot wait any longer for sanitation improvements which are, in the main, human rights issue. Today, we have highlighted the plight of these learners in a manner that shows the urgency of the delivery”.
On behalf of the department and the provincial government, Isaac Malatji, Head of Infrastructure, accepted the Memorandum from the learners.
Spokesperson for the department, Mike Maringa, said the department made a commitment to respond by Friday.
“No comments at this stage as we are still looking at the memorandum and engaging with Various units of the department to see how best to respond to the issues,” Maringa told Inside Education.
Priority one schools are schools with illegal plain pit toilets as their only form of sanitation.
Plain pit toilets were completely banned from schools by the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure (the school infrastructure law) in 2013 and had to be removed and replaced by 2016.
It has been 10 years since the introduction of the school infrastructure law, and all of the sanitation delivery deadlines (2016 and 2020) have been missed.
In 2017, EE visited 18 schools in Ga-Mashashane in Limpopo’s Capricorn district to determine whether these schools had access to water supply and safe toilets in line with the school infrastructure law.
The results of this investigation are detailed in the report, “Dikolo tša go hloka seriti.” The initial visits were prompted by an outcry from Equalisers (EE high school learner members) about the terrible sanitation conditions at their schools.
“Our findings confirmed learners’ reports about unsafe sanitation conditions at school. We found, among other things, that learners in most of the schools used plain pit toilets as the only sanitation option available, while others were exposed to dangerous or broken enviro-loos and ventilated improved pit toilets,” the reports said.
In February 2020, EE and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) revisited 15 of the 18 schools to check progress in access to safe water and toilet facilities in Limpopo schools.
The visits were also motivated by the involvement as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the Michael Komape court case, where the Polokwane High Court ordered the LDoE and the national department of basic education (DBE) to develop a reasonable plan for replacing all pit toilets in Limpopo schools (the structural order).
Using the information gathered during the 2020 school visits, Equal Education submitted a supplementary affidavit to the court in which it argued that both the national and Limpopo education departments had failed to fulfill their constitutional duty to provide safe infrastructure for learners in Limpopo.
The data gathered on the hygiene and safety conditions that shape the learning experiences of learners at these schools was documented in the second report, “Tšhedimošo mo dikolong tša go hloka seriti.”
In March 2023, 15 schools were visited by Equal Education to monitor the progress of sanitation delivery after the release of two reports highlighting their struggles.
“We found the sanitation conditions in some schools unchanged, while others had gotten worse. It is clear that the LDoE continues to be slow in addressing sanitation backlogs and fulfilling its moral and legal responsibilities to learners,” organisers said.
Learners at Tutwana Primary, Seipone Secondary, and Kgolokgotla Secondary schools are still using illegal plain pit toilets as their only form of sanitation.
The advocacy group said these structures are especially dangerous and inappropriate for younger children at Tutwana Primary School. The use of these illegal structures persists in schools despite several tragic cases of young children losing their lives.
According to the LDoE’s latest progress report, 52 schools categorised under priority one—schools with only inappropriate toilets like plain pits—are still in the planning and design phases of development.
However, based on the department’s revised implementation plan submitted to the High Court in 2021, these schools should have received sanitation upgrades by the end of March 2023.
On Tuesday, protesters said it was urgent that the Limpopo department of education DoE provide schools with adequate, proper, and safe toilet facilities to meet the necessary hygiene and safety standards for a conducive learning environment.
“As long as these illegal pit toilets exist in schools, children’s rights will continue to be violated. We cannot and will not sit back while the LDoE continuously fails to meet the deadlines for school sanitation upgrades. #FixOurSchools #SeritiMoDikolong!” Lebelo said.
INSIDE EDUCATION
