This, as education lobby groups - Equal Education and Section 27 - confirm that they will be heading back to court on August 6 to compel the Basic Education Department to eradicate pit toilets. The groups say issues regarding inadequate sanitation in schools across the different provinces are a cause of concern. 

The groups maintain the department has not done much to address the plight faced by millions of learners and teachers who are subjected to the use of pit latrines. Whilst the education rights organisations will be compelling the department to address the plight faced specifically in the province of Limpopo, the latest non-financial census of municipalities indicates that the Free State, together with the Northern Cape, North West, and the Eastern Cape, has recorded an increase of pit latrine users.

The survey indicates that the Free State has recorded the highest number of residents subjected to the use of bucket toilets. It further indicates that 37 out of 257 municipalities provided bucket toilets to residents in 2019, with most of them being those in the Free State.

The Free State’s Setsoto, Nala, Nketoana, Ngwathe and Metsimaholo Municipalities are ranked among the top ten municipalities countrywide with inadequate sanitation.

Equal Education and Section 27 have meanwhile highlighted their concern over the persistent use of pit latrines and how learners are subjected to poor sanitation.

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