New MPs in drive to fast-track overdue eradication of dangerous school toilets

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

By Lisakanya Venna

17 Jul 2024

The new basic education parliamentary committee chairperson is striving for speediness in tackling the longstanding issue of dangerous pit toilets in South African rural schools – a problem that has perpetuated unsanitary conditions for years.

After nearly a year since a petition against pit latrines was handed to the parliamentary portfolio committee on basic education to consider, MPs have requested that the process to eradicate pit toilets be fast-tracked in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape.

This was discussed in the legacy report meeting before the committee on Tuesday.

The 44-page report said the previous sixth parliamentary committee had been approached by Yongama Zigebe, a leader in the Ngovu Change social justice movement in July 2023, with a petition calling for the minister of education to eradicate pit latrines in public schools countrywide by November 2024.

Zigebe is also secretary-general of the United Democratic Movement (UDM).

Zigebe submitted the petition with more than 5,000 signatures, following former Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s remarks in March 2023 that pupils at 3,398 schools still use pit toilets to relieve themselves.

Read more: The indignity of pit toilet deaths: Michael Komape in 2014, now Lumka Mkhethwa

In the House on Tuesday, the newly elected chairperson of the portfolio committee, Joy Maimela, highlighted the need to work on previous petitions on the legacy report which she presented on.

pit latrines One of the zinc toilets used by residents in the Emfuleni Local Municipality in Evaton on 18 July 2023. (Photo: Gallo Images / OJ Koloti)

The report details the recommendations of members – around the prioritisation of infrastructure and eradication of pit toilets – and highlights the department’s steps to address the findings and recommendations. Furthermore, recommendations pertaining to the eradication of pit latrines are said to be considered during the seventh Parliament as a matter of urgent follow-up visits.

When committee members were asked to give their input on the legacy report, the DA’s Christians Delmaine did not hold back: “Of great importance is the eradication of pit toilets. I believe that as a committee we should prioritise that, we should accelerate the eradication of pit toilets. I believe all of us, together as a team, we raised that yesterday during the debates.”

Read more: MPs give Angie Motshekga 60 days to submit time frames to eradicate ‘death trap’ pit latrines at schools

Students at thousands of schools in South Africa still use pit toilets.

A progress report on the eradication of pit toilets in schools by the Limpopo Department of Education in November 2023 showed that 1,837 schools in the province still had pit toilets.

The organisation Equal Education (EE) demanded in April 2024 that the Limpopo Education Department meet its deadlines to replace pit latrines in the province, saying it had “already missed several legally binding deadlines”.

“At the beginning of the 2024 school year, EE revisited two priority 1 schools in the Capricorn District – Tutwana and Mashashane Primary Schools – as part of our monitoring of implementation of the Komape court order. We found that there has been little progress made since our visits last year, with learners at Mashashane still using dangerous plain pit toilets while learners at Tutwana had four temporary toilets,” EE said.

It added that the experiences of pupils at these two schools are just two examples of “a much bigger sanitation crisis” in the province.

Siviwe Gwarube, the new basic education minister, on 29 May 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

“Currently, about 1,900 schools in the province still have dangerous plain pit toilets and over 2,000 Limpopo schools need sanitation upgrades.”

In the Eastern Cape, the MEC for education revealed in January 2024 that 427 schools with 113,041 pupils were still using pit latrines, Daily Maverick reported.

The nonprofit SECTION27 has criticised the Basic Education Department for moving too slowly and missing many deadlines in removing pit latrines at public schools.

“Considering the severe infrastructure backlogs that continue to plague public schools, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, we are concerned that the revised School Infrastructure Regulations are retrogressive and will only exacerbate already existing backlogs,” it said on 11 July.

Daily Maverick has reported that the new basic education minister, Siviwe Gwarube, vowed to eradicate pit latrines at schools in areas including the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.

Gwarube again referred to the need to eradicate pit latrines in her budget vote speech on Tuesday.

“We cannot have learners in danger of drowning in pit toilets or learning in inappropriate structures, 30 years into our democracy,” she told MPs. DM

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