PIT TOILETS MUST GO BY NEXT YEAR, SAYS RIGHTS GROUP

Mon 28 October 2024:

Amnesty International South Africa (AISA) has vowed to ensure pit toilets at schools are a thing of the past by next year. This comes after basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube said the deadline for the eradication of the hazardous toilets was March 2025.

Nearly 1 800 schools in South Africa have illegal pit toilets, posing a danger to the lives of children using them daily. AISA believes the government must be held to its commitment, and should not be allowed to continue extending its own deadlines.

“Pit toilets should have been eradicated a long time ago,” Shenilla Mohamed, executive director of the international NGO’s South African chapter, told Salaamedia. “We cannot accept any more excuses for missed deadlines.”

In 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced the Sanitation Appropriate For Schools (SAFE) initiative. In the six years that have passed, the number of schools with pit toilets has decreased from 4 707 to 1 770. The job is not complete, says Mohamed.

“While it is a decrease, it is not enough, as all pit toilets must be and should have been eradicated by now. Amnesty International South Africa will continue to hold the government accountable for eradicating illegal plain pit toilets from all schools in South Africa,” she said.

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Banned, but not banished

Despite being banned in 2013, with the introduction of Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure, they continue to claim the lives of school children.

The pits were to be replaced by 2016, but the department is accused of cruising past its own deadlines on several occasions. After the sixth administration missed the February 2023 deadline, the new minister of education believes the toilets will be a thing of the past come March 2025.

Mohamed said it was crucial that the hazardous, illegal pits were removed without further delay. Their continued use, she stressed, infringed on a litany of rights to which pupils were entitled.

“These pit toilets not only violate the right to sanitation, which is enshrined in the Constitution, but also the right to health, education, dignity, privacy, and in some cases pose a serious risk to the right to life.”

Soon after taking office, the new education minister said the effort to eradicate the toilets was an ongoing one.

She stated: “Once we have cleared that backlog, we have to continuously do an audit to make sure that our schools remain safe so that we can see if there are new pit toilets that are erected”.