An Education Sector Media Briefing was held in Pretoria on Sunday morning, where the Minister of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), Angie Motshekga, addressed the most recent pit toilet tragedy.
The Department admits that not enough action has been taken to eradicate pit toilets at schools and provide adequate sanitation.
Infrastructure issues at hundreds of schools across South Africa have long been a cause for concern, specifically the number of schools still making use of pit toilets. Not only are there questions regarding the sanitisation risk this poses, but also concerns around the safety of the school learners.
In 2018, the death of five-year-old primary school learner, Lumka Mketwa, sparked outrage after she was found drowned in a pit latrine in the Eastern Cape. The Eastern Cape currently has more than 1 400 schools still making use of pit toilets, as well as 506 schools with mud structure.
Earlier this month, yet another Eastern Cape school made headlines when three-year-old Langalam was found in a pit toilet at a local primary school.
Motshekga states that a number of schools have already dealt with the issue of pit-toilets, and the school where Langalam was found had in fact installed proper sanitation facilities, however, the school had yet to destroy the remaining pit toilets. Therefore, she reveals that the Department was doing what was required to deal with this issue.
The death of a child is something really serious and it is unseemly to use that death to cast aspersions at government or paint a picture of an uncaring, under-performing government.
However, Motshekga goes on to reveal that the circumstances surrounding the death of Langalam are being investigated.
Besides the school having new toilet facilities, Langalam was found fully dressed in the tank of the senior toilets. Questions have been circulating regarding why she was found clothed and not in the age-appropriate bathroom.
Langalam's body would not be able to travel from the pit-side to the tank where it was found, and she would not have physically been able to lift the lid to the tank herself. These questions have been posed to law enforcement and the investigation continues.
Other details that are raising questions is that this incident occurred after hours, meaning that the bus had to have left Langalam behind and she had to have been able to access the premises.
I ask these questions, not to absolve government of responsibility, but we all owe it to ourselves, to Langalam and the notion of justice, to ensure that all these questions are thoroughly interrogated and, hopefully answered.
"The media in this country is very good at investigative reporting and, perhaps, together with law enforcement and our own queries we can get to the bottom of how a child could die in a school that had infrastructure that met the norms and standards could lose in this way."
The Minister concluded that all the Department's solutions to the pit toilet issue are approved by the South African National Standards. These solutions include a ventilated, improved pit, Amalooloo or Enviroloo where water-borne sanitation is not possible.
The Government plans to remove all pit toilets by 2025, despite initially promising their eradication by 2023. The details surrounding Langalam's death are being investigated by The South African Police Services (SAPS).
