Pit latrines in Govan Mbeki municipality. A four year old child's body was found in a pit latrine. (Photo: Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
A non-governmental organisation advocating for the eradication of pit latrines in schools says the basic education department has failed to meet the target it set for itself for these to be removed.
Section27’s senior attorney Demichelle Petherbridge said although the organisation acknowledged it was a mammoth task, and the steps the department had taken to eradicate pit toilets, children were still dying.
“The department declared pit toilets unlawful and indicated that these should be removed from schools by November 2016, therefore [it is] already nine years late in tackling this problem,” she told the Mail & Guardian.
“Children have already lost their lives and will continue to be exposed to this risk for as long as pit toilets — whether used or unused — remain on school premises.”
Petherbridge’s comments come after the death of a four-year-old who was found drowned in a pit latrine at an Eastern Cape school earlier this month.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said the school where Langalam Viki died had new and proper sanitation but the pit toilets had not been destroyed.
She told a media briefing on Sunday to give an update on the department’s work on school infrastructure for the 2022-23 financial year that it had been working tirelessly on programmes to roll it out across the country.
“The department identified 3 398 schools that were lacking in infrastructure in one form or another … that is either not age appropriate or simply inadequate. Since that time, we have delivered 2 478 projects to schools across the country,” Motshekga said.
The launch of the Sanitation Appropriate For Education (Safe) programme by President Cyril Ramaphosa had assisted in addressing the infrastructure backlog in schools, she added.
The Safe programme was launched in 2018 and was meant to last two years. Its primary objective was to replace basic pit toilets with appropriate sanitation in accordance with the Regulations Relating to Minimum Uniform Norm and Standards for Public School Infrastructure.
Motshekga said: “I would like members of the media to bear in mind that, during this period, we had the Covid-19 pandemic which forced the lockdown of the country and significantly impacted implementation on the ground.”
Petherbridge said Section27 had seen how the implementation of a dedicated plan to remove pit toilets had made significant changes in sanitation conditions at schools in Limpopo.
Data provided by the Limpopo Department of Education showed that more than 65 940 learners from 210 schools rely exclusively on pit toilets. That is an improvement from data supplied by the department in December 2021, when 116 299 learners from 363 schools relied on pit toilets, Petherbridge said.
Last Friday, Section27, in partnership with the Centre for Child Law (CCL), launched the Michael Komape Sanitation Progress Monitor, an accountability tool that tracks advances made by the Limpopo education department in eliminating unsafe and undignified sanitation, including pit toilets in public schools, and installing safe and decent sanitation facilities.
The tool is named after a five-year-old child who drowned in a pit latrine at his school in Limpopo in 2014.
Section27 and the CCL called on learners, parents, school communities and other stakeholders to use the tool to collectively put pressure on the department and hold it to account.
“We believe that a comprehensive, transparent and properly budgeted national plan will be required to ensure that all pit toilets are removed from schools across South Africa,” said Petherbridge.
Motshekga said: “When a tragedy like this occurs, it makes us more resolute of the continued need for the Accelerated School Infrastructure Initiative [ASIDI], then, so that we could continue to fast track these schools that are in desperate need of infrastructure and make them safe havens for our children.”
She noted that the ASIDI programme, which was created to eradicate inadequate, unsafe and poor physical infrastructure in schools, would come to an end in the next financial year.
Kenneth Moeng Mokgatlhe, a political analyst based in North West, said new toilets that were intended to replace the pit latrines in many schools in the province’s villages have not worked because of various factors. At one school, the contractor did not complete the project, while at others they don’t operate because of an inadequate water supply.
“This means that the status quo has not really changed, as learners and teachers are subjected to this inhumane treatment by the government which is failing to improve the working conditions of teachers and the learning environment for learners. Why is this not even declared a state of disaster?” said Mokgathle.
He said the eradication of pit toilets in the provinces of Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and North West is a distant dream that will not be realised because of a lack of political commitment by those in authority.
Motshekga is not willing to accept responsibility for the danger unsafe pit toilets still pose to learners, the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) said.
“The minister herself would certainly not deign to use those toilets, nor would she allow her children and grandchildren to use them,” DA member of parliament Baxolile Nodada said.
Last week, the party said it would go to court to force the basic education department to get rid of all pit toilets at schools.
“In consultation with our lawyers, the DA will be starting litigation proceedings to find the quickest and most effective means to instruct governments across the country to erect proper sanitation facilities for all school children as a fundamental human right,” Nodada said.