Ramaphosa launches SAFE initiative
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has acted swiftly on his promise three months ago to speedily eradicate pit latrine toilets in schools to avoid further deaths of pupils.
Yesterday, Ramaphosa launched the Sanitation Appropriate for Education – or SAFE – aimed at eradicating pit latrine toilets in almost 4 000 schools in the country, especially in rural areas.
On June 16 this year, during the 42nd celebrations of the Soweto students uprisings, Ramaphosa vowed that no young people “will ever die again in those toilets at their schools and local communities”.
Launching SAFE, he said it was an initiative which would spare generations of young South Africans the indignity, discomfort and danger of using pit latrines and other unsafe facilities in their schools.
The SAFE initiative is supported by Unicef, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the National Education Collaboration Trust.
“We are here to ask to be part of a bold social initiative to ensure that every school in the country has safe and appropriate sanitation facilities. This is an initiative that will save lives and restore the dignity of tens of thousands of our nation’s children as our constitution demands,” he said.
Ramaphosa’s pledge came as the family of five-year-old Michael Komape, who drowned in a pit latrine toilet four years ago, petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal seeking a compensation of R3 million for his death.
Komape was a Grade R pupil at Mahlodumela Primary School in Limpopo on January 20, 2014. He was a pupil at that school for only three days when the tragedy struck.
In April this year, the High Court in Limpopo dismissed the family’s application to be compensated to the tune of R3m. This prompted the family and Section 27 in June this year to appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Ramaphosa reiterated that such deaths should not happen again and he cited the deaths of Komape and Lumka Mkhethwa of Luna Junior Primary School in the Eastern Cape, who lost her life in March this year.
He said schools should be places where children can be safe, supported, nurtured and empowered.
“Schools should be centres for building communities and for strengthening partnerships between a government and the people themselves. The SAFE initiative reaches beyond the bricks and mortar of water and sanitation. It seeks to contribute to building a cohesive society in which schools are the heartbeat of wholesome communities,” Ramaphosa said.
He described the recent events in which children died in pit latrines at their schools as an emergency that needed the attention of every community. “There are nearly 4 000 schools across the country that only have pit latrines or other inappropriate facilities. These are the schools that serve the children of the poor,” Ramaphosa said.
The Education for Social Justice Foundation (ESJF) welcomed Ramaphosa’s initiative.