President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, announced to much fanfare today that the government will eradicate pit toilets at schools by 2030. This means that learners must now wait another 12 years to access dignified sanitation.
This is what the failing ANC government considers an “urgent” plan and means that a child who starts Grade 1 now, could go their entire school career without having access to a safe toilet at school.
This is yet another one of the ANC’s empty promises. The reality is that the ruling party has had 24 years to ensure that school children have access to safe and dignified sanitation. They have failed.
It was announced today that currently, 3 898 schools rely on pit latrines. However, this is now the fourth set of different figures in the last six months.
In March, the total number of schools with pit toilets was 8 679; in April, 5 779; and in May, data from a ‘rapid’ sanitation audit on which the new “urgent” plan is based indicated that the figure was 4 108.
On Monday, the North West Department of Education told Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education that the figure for the North West was 154. The rapid audit, however, said this figure was 192.
The Government seems to have no idea which figures are correct. Moreover, it is unclear why a rapid audit was needed in the first place, as the government is meant to continuously monitor school infrastructure, including the number of schools with pit toilets.
This speaks to the far greater problem. Even when funding is available, the ANC is incapable of delivering safe schools to South African learners. This is largely due to the financial mismanagement and corruption at provincial level, which leave learners bearing the brunt.
A further 3 040 schools have pit toilets that have been replaced, but not demolished. This is exactly the situation which lead to the tragic death of an Eastern Cape learner, Lumka Mkethwa, in March. The President himself admitted that it took the deaths of at least two children for the government to care enough to make a national action plan to eradicate pit latrines.
If the ANC was genuine in its commitment to providing for the basic rights of learners, it would not have cut the school infrastructure budget and would stop the shocking mismanagement of education in provinces like the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Without a safe and quality basic education, our children have little hope of reaching their full potential, getting a job and creating a better future for themselves.
South African learners deserve better than a government which is full of empty promises. Where we govern, the DA is committed to ensuring that every child has access to dignifies sanitation. We remain committed to the safety of learners and not the enrichment of government officials.