Ramaphosa keeps school pit latrine initiative promise

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, he launched the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) initiative to eradicate pit latrine toilets in almost 4 000 schools across the country.

On June 16, 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 dangerous facilities in their schools.

The 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 appropri- ate 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 Michael Komape, 5, who drowned in a pit latrine toilet four years ago, petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) seeking R3 million in compensation for his death.

Komape was a Grade R pupil at Mahlodumela Primary School in Limpopo on January 20, 2014, when the tragedy struck. He had been at the school for only three days.

In April, the high court in Limpopo dismissed the family’s application for compensation of R3m. This prompted the family and Section27 to take the compensation battle to the SCA.

Ramaphosa reiterated that such deaths should not happen again and he cited the deaths of Komape and Lumka Mkhethwa, of Luna Junior Primary School, also aged 5, in the Eastern Cape, who lost her life in March this year.

“Schools should be places where children could 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 school children died in pit toilets 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 welcomed Ramaphosa’s initiative.

Foundation spokesperson Hendrick Makaneta said his organisation had always called for decisive action to bring up about dignity to the learners, especially those in rural schools.

“The recent action by Ramaphosa will certainly go a long way to restore confidence and pride in a wide range of communities, some of whom experienced trauma when they lost loved ones in unsafe pit toilets,” Makaneta said.

Members of Section27 protested prior to Ramaphosa’s address complaining about the Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s decision to appeal against a Bhisho High Court ruling which found her responsible to ensure that schools have proper ablution facilities.

The ruling last month ordered her to fully implement the norms and standards of education as set out in the Schools Act.

Begins process to make schools safe for learners