EDWIN NAIDU
PROGRESS in reducing the number of pit latrines at schools throughout South Africa has been made since 2018, according to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, in response to a question in Parliament.
She said sanitation projects at 2 547 schools had been completed out of the 3 397 on the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) list.
Responding to a question from Inkatha Freedom Party Member of Parliament, Siphosethu Lindinkosi Ngcobo on 12 April, the Minister said the remaining 850 schools on the list had been allocated to implementing agents, and the sanitation projects are scheduled to be completed in the current financial year.
Ngcobo asked the Minister what the reasons that her department has not been able to eradicate pit latrines sooner, considering that some of her department’s budget for the eradication of pit latrines has been returned to the National Treasury and the fact that her department will not achieve its target to eradicate pit toilets by 2025.
The question followed the death of four-year-old Langalam Viki, who allegedly drowned in a pit latrine toilet in Vaalbank in Eastern Cape in March. The tragedy highlighted the failure of the Department of Basic Education to get rid of pit latrine toilets, despite adopting the minimum uniform norms and standards for public school infrastructure, which banned them at schools in 2013.
The norms and standards created a legal responsibility for the department and provincial departments to eradicate pit latrines at schools. Over the past decade, there have been many horror stories like that of Viki, including 7-year-old Lister Magongwa, who died in 2013 in Limpopo, 5-year-old Oratilwe Dilwane, who died in 2016 in North West, and 6-year-old Siyamthanda Mtunu, who died in 2017 in the Eastern Cape.
Motshekga said that in 1996, the Department of Education assessed the infrastructure at all public schools.
At the time, it was estimated that about 9 000 schools had no appropriate toilets; and were dependent on basic pit toilets.
She said that as part of the SAFE Initiative launched in 2018, an assessment was conducted to determine the number of schools dependent on basic pit toilets.
At the time, it was estimated that the number of schools dependent on basic pit toilets had reduced to 3898.
She said that several of the 3898 schools were small and unviable and subsequently rationalised and closed,” she said.
Further to the rationalisation and closure of small and unviable schools, Motshekga said the SAFE project focused on 3 397; after-schools were not part of the original list in 2018 but were now included.
Civil society organisations, Equal Education and Amnesty International have consistently raised the issue, highlighting the tardiness of the department in swiftly eradicating pit latrine toilets.
The Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen said last month that Human Rights Day could only be commemorated once every child had access to safe and dignified sanitation at school.
“The drowning of our children in pit toilets goes far beyond a human rights violation; it is a horror that no South African should ever be forced to contemplate,” Steenhuisen said.
According to Motshegka, all pit latrines will be eradicated by 2025.
INSIDE EDUCATION
