IN THE NEWS School still has no working toilets

A CONTRACTOR still needs to be appointed to conduct work on ablution facilities at a Northern Cape high school, where the toilets have reportedly not been working for the past three years.

This is according to the Northern Cape Department of Education, which said yesterday that challenges with the scope of the work at Veritas High School in De Aar had resulted in a delay in the appointment of the contractor.

Department spokesperson, Geoffrey van der Merwe, said that the department had assessed the situation and would appoint a suitable contractor.

“To fast track the appointment, a quantity surveyor visited the school to assess the scope of the work that needs to be conducted. The department has received this information and we are in the process of appointing a contractor,” Van der Merwe said.

Parents have, however, threatened to close the school due to the unhygienic conditions pupils have to endure.

Equal Education, which recently won a court case against the Department of Education in the Bisho High Court, has meanwhile urged Minister Angie Motshekga to urgently release the national sanitation audit.

Last week, the Bhisho High Court ruled in favour of Equal Education in the #FixTheNorms case.

This ruling comes four months after the death of fiveyear-old Lumka Mkhethwa, who fell into a pit latrine at her school in Bizana, Eastern Cape – prompting President Cyril Ramaphosa to call for an audit of all public school sanitation facilities and for costed implementation plans.

According to Equal Education, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and provincial education Departments (PEDs) have been unacceptably slow in addressing the school toilet crisis.

“Despite it being illegal since November 29, 2016, schools continue to lack sanitation facilities, and pupils and teachers are forced to make use of unsafe and undignified toilets. Unreliable school infrastructure data and inaccessible plans continue to mar attempts by school communities and civil society to hold government to account,” Equal Education’s Leanne Jansen-Thomas said.

“The court also ruled that the Norms and Standards implementation plans and progress reports must be made publicly accessible by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga within a reasonable time of being received from PEDs,” she said.

Jansen-Thomas added that the state’s delay in providing safe and adequate facilities to schools had resulted in tragic outcomes.

“In January 2014, five-year-old Michael Komape died at school in Limpopo after falling through a dilapidated pit latrine. Four years later, and after the first deadline stipulated by the Norms and Standards had passed, the same fate befell Lumka. We can no longer allow pupils and teachers, particularly those in rural provinces, to risk their lives in order to use the toilet.” said Jansen-Thomas. – Benida Phillips