Plan to replace pit toilets
Ramaphosa launches initiative to install proper school ablution facilities
THE Education for Social Justice Foundation (ESJF) has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s initiative aimed at installing proper ablution facilities in 4 000 schools countrywide. ESJF spokesperson Hendrick Makaneta said his organisation had always called for decisive action to bring dignity to pupils, especially those in rural schools. He said the government should move with “the necessary speed” to supply bulk infrastructure for rural communities.
“We note that many people still rely on unsafe toilets, while others rely on nearby forests and bushes to relieve themselves.”
Yesterday Ramaphosa acted on his promise three months ago to eradicate pit latrine toilets in schools to avoid further pupil deaths.
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 Sanitation Appropriate for Education, or “Safe”, Ramaphosa said it was an initiative that would spare generations of young South Africans the “indignity, discomfort and danger” of using pit latrines and other unsafe facilities at their schools.
“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 5-year-old Michael Komape, who drowned in a pit latrine toilet four years ago, petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal, seeking compensation of R3million 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 before he died.
In April this year, the High Court in Limpopo dismissed the family’s application. This prompted the family and Section27 in June to appeal against the ruling in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Yesterday, Ramaphosa reiterated that such tragedies should not happen again, and cited the deaths of Komape and of Lumka Mkhethwa of Luna Junior Primary School in the Eastern Cape, who lost her life in a pit toilet in March this year.
“Schools should be places where children could be safe, supported, nurtured and empowered,” he said.
“Schools should be centres for building communities and for strengthening partnerships between the 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 deaths of children in pit latrines in their schools as “an emergency” that needed the attention of every community.
“There are nearly 4000 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.
Members of Section27 protested before Ramaphosa’s address, complaining about Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s decision to appeal against the Bhisho High Court ruling, which found that she was responsible to ensure that schools have proper ablution facilities.
The ruling, made last month, ordered Motshekga to fully implement “the norms and standards of education” as set out in the South African Schools Act.