As the list of child deaths grows, the president’s promises are all the more hollow
24 March 2023 - 05:00
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These are toilets which pupils used before at Reahlahlwa Primary School in Vaalwater, Limpopo. File Photo: SANDILE NDLOVU
In August 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared to feel the disgust of the nation when he said that school pit latrines were to become a thing of the past. Announcing a R6.8bn campaign called the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) programme, he promised that they would be abolished within two years.
Outrage about the ongoing use of pit latrines at schools had been growing since the death of Michael Komape, a five-year-old who drowned in a toilet during his first week of school in Limpopo in 2014. The state then tried to discredit the child’s devastated parents when they took the department of basic education to court for damages. The state won the case.
In March 2018, Lumka Mkhethwa, a five-year-old, drowned in a pit toilet near Bizana in the Eastern Cape, perhaps sparking Ramaphosa’s announcement of an audit of pit toilets and to promise their eradication.
It is distressing to learn that on March 7 2023, Langalam Viki, a four-year-old, drowned in a pit latrine in the Eastern Cape. It is not clear what happened to the Safe programme. According to a 2021 report by the SA Human Rights Commission, more than 3,000 schools still use pit toilets, and they are commonplace in poor schools in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
These deaths are preventable and school pit toilets have been a priority for more than a decade. The government’s indifference to such grief is hard to comprehend.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
EDITORIAL: Eradicate school pit toilets now
As the list of child deaths grows, the president’s promises are all the more hollow
In August 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared to feel the disgust of the nation when he said that school pit latrines were to become a thing of the past. Announcing a R6.8bn campaign called the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) programme, he promised that they would be abolished within two years.
Outrage about the ongoing use of pit latrines at schools had been growing since the death of Michael Komape, a five-year-old who drowned in a toilet during his first week of school in Limpopo in 2014. The state then tried to discredit the child’s devastated parents when they took the department of basic education to court for damages. The state won the case.
In March 2018, Lumka Mkhethwa, a five-year-old, drowned in a pit toilet near Bizana in the Eastern Cape, perhaps sparking Ramaphosa’s announcement of an audit of pit toilets and to promise their eradication.
It is distressing to learn that on March 7 2023, Langalam Viki, a four-year-old, drowned in a pit latrine in the Eastern Cape. It is not clear what happened to the Safe programme. According to a 2021 report by the SA Human Rights Commission, more than 3,000 schools still use pit toilets, and they are commonplace in poor schools in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
These deaths are preventable and school pit toilets have been a priority for more than a decade. The government’s indifference to such grief is hard to comprehend.
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