According to an audit outcome of school sanitation facilities released Tuesday by the Basic Department of Education, the Northern Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng are the only provinces with proper sanitation. 

These results comes months after President Cyril Ramaphosa instructed the department to carry out an audit of schools with pit toilets and submit a plan to eradicate them.

His directive came after the death of a five-year-old, Lumka Mkhetha, who died after falling into a pit toilet in the Eastern Cape, made national headlines. 

OFM News’ Katleho Morapela reports that although a large number of schools with pit latrines only and unacceptable sanitation are still mainly found in the Eastern Cape, followed by KZN, the audit outcome indicates that over 150 of these schools are found in the Free State while 145 are found in the North West.

Opposition parties in the North West are still lambasting the Education Department for the lack of proper sanitation at many schools in the province. 

DA provincial spokesperson on Health and Education, Tutu Faleni, told OFM News, that the situation at the Reoleboge Special School near Rustenburg still compromises learners’ personal hygiene and poses health risks for them. 

This, after they found that over 350 learners at this school had to do with only three toilets, where two are shared among boys and another shared by the girls.

The Department’s Troy Martins says they have re-prioritised sanitation at schools and are aiming to eradicate all pit toilets at 3898 schools countrywide by 2025 and will like to partner with the private sector to enable them to eradicate them within a year. 

Ramaphosa on Tuesday launched the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) Initiative to help address this.

OFM News