ANC’S school pit toilet attitude stinks
SOUTH AFRICA is revered for having one of the most progressive constitutions in the world – one that protects the right to life and dignity of its citizens.
At every opportunity, government officials and politicians emphasise they “are for the people”.
But on closer inspection, there is a great distance between politicians and the people they represent, more especially the poor. It is under this “caring” government that two young lives ended abruptly in the most awful and unimaginable of ways – drowning in human faeces – 24 years into a democracy.
Their only sin was being born in underprivileged conditions in rural parts of the country.
When it was reported in 2014 that Michael Komape, 5, a grade R Pupil at Mahlodumela Primary School in Limpopo, fell and drowned in a collapsed pit toilet, I was gutted. It hit so close to home.
Like Michael, I attended school in rural Limpopo outside Polokwane with poor facilities. Ablution facilities were appalling – dirty, stinking breeding grounds for disease.
As a youngster, I thought it was normal for black people in rural areas to be condemned to such conditions. Anything better was reserved for those fortunate enough to attend schools in town or urban areas, so I thought, and expected little.
President Cyril Ramaphosa galvanised South Africans and promised that the country was entering a “new dawn”, after being elected president during the ANC’S elective conference in December. Barely three months later, five-year-old Lumka Mketwa, from Luna Junior Primary School in Eastern Cape drowned in a pit latrine.
This, for me, signalled how the life of a poor black child has become cheap. I thought the first pit latrine death was shocking enough for the government to send out inspectors to all other schools still using pit toilets to conduct safety assessments and put measures in place to prevent another similar death.
But as always, politicians responded: “We regret” … “This should not have happened”, “unacceptable, and incredibly disturbing”. No action to accompany their words.
On Monday, Ramaphosa launched his Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) initiative aimed at eradicating about 3000 pit toilets in South African schools. The move was a reaction to an unfortunate situation.
What was government’s original plan to eradicate appalling infrastructure in poor schools? If they did not have a plan, why should South Africans trust a reactionary government?
The principal of Michael’s school had written several letters to the Limpopo Department of Education requesting new toilets be built for safety reasons. But his pleas were ignored. Michael’s school only received safe toilets after his death, and why did government wait for tragedy to strike?
Decent toilets form part of the basic human rights that every child should enjoy.
Lobby Group Equal Education highlighted the hypocrisy of this government, questioning the decision to appeal the Fix The Norms Judgement that compelled government to fix school infrastructure, including sanitation facilities.
In July, the Bhisho High Court ruled in favour of Equal Education’s case against the minister of Basic Education, that sections of regulations relating to minimum norms and standards for public school infrastructure are inconsistent with the constitution.
During an interview with 702’s Afternoon Drive show presenter, Xolani Gwala, the spokesperson for the Department of Basic Education Elijah Mhlanga said that it welcomed the court judgment but said the department would appeal as the “matter is legal and technical”.
Does that mean the department does not want to make any undertaking to rid schools of bad infrastructure? Is the government at loggerheads with itself ?
The unnecessary deaths of Lumka and Michael confirm one thing – that the poor people that the Anc-led government professes to love are actually an afterthought.
I turned 30 in July but both Pela-bela Primary School and Mochedi High School that I attended in rural Limpopo are still using pit toilets.
It is incredibly difficult for me to sit and listen to a politician talking about another initiative, to better the lives of “our people”.
How is it acceptable that we are still talking about pit toilets in 2018? One can only hope that the issue of pit toilets is not fodder for the upcoming elections.