It was recently revealed that 5,201 schools in South Africa still have pit toilets. The majority of the schools operating with pit toilets are located in Limpopo (1,948 schools), KwaZulu-Natal (1,495 schools) and the Eastern Cape (984 schools).
The Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga explained that the Sanitation Appropriate For Education (SAFE programme) was launched in 2018 to provide schools with appropriate toilets.
We are proud to announce that 2474 of the 3357 schools have now been served with appropriate toilets.
The National Freedom Party (NFP) is calling for a state of disaster to be declared to eradicate pit toilets.
Canaan Mdletshe, General Secretary of the NFP says the declaration of a state of disaster could lead to the provision of increased funds to deal with the infrastructure challenges facing schools.
They believe that the government's failure to eradicate pit latrines demonstrates that the minister of education does not care about what is happening at rural schools in South Africa.
Mdletshe challenges minister Motshekga to spend a day at a school with pit latrines. This will demonstrate how traumatising it is for learners to use inadequate facilities.
It's traumatising for five-year-olds to go to school when they know that five kilometres away from the school you can smell the toilets and they are forced to eat in those circumstances.
Mdletshe says it might be time for the president to intervene with regard to the pit toilet crises. This is because the basic education minister failed in their responsibility to eradicate pit latrines.
The NFP announced their intention to conduct a nationwide inspection of schools to determine if there are indeed only 800 schools that are still using pit latrines in South Africa. The party will also raise the matter in parliament as a way to ensure the minister is held to account regarding the eradication of pit latrines.
