Gwarube fails to meet deadline to rid SA schools of pit toilets

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Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube has admitted that her department has failed to meet the deadline it set itself for the eradication of pit toilets in South African schools.

The deadline was for 31 March 2025, however, to date, only 96% of the work has been done.

ANOTHER DELAY IN ERADICATING PIT TOILETS IN SCHOOLS

Over the years, the Department of Basic Education has continuously failed to meet the deadlines it had set for eradicating pit latrines in schools, especially lower primary schools.

According to the non-profit organisation Amnesty International, plain pit toilets were banned from South African schools by the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure in 2013. They had to be removed and replaced by 2016.

Unfortunately, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) missed all the initial deadlines (2016 and 2020) and new deadlines, including ones set for the end of February 2023.

Regarding the latest missed deadline, Gwarube said although the initial target was 31 March 2025, the department now aimed to complete the final 141 schools by July 2025.

“Of the pit toilets identified in the SAFE Initiative’s 2018 audit, as of 31 March 2025, we have eradicated 96%. This is significant progress from seven years ago when the government identified nearly 3372 schools across the country that relied on these dangerous structures.

“Today, we have 141 of those identified toilets left. 90 of these are in construction phases and should be completed between this month and June – taking it to 98% completion. This is an achievement of scale, but it is not a victory. While we are at the tail end of the 2018 audit – we need to initiate a new audit which will make sure whatever was missed and built after the audit is identified and eradicated,” Gwarube said.

Gwarube also refused to take credit for the work done to date, emphasising that most of the progress was achieved under her predecessor Angie Motshekga, who is now the minister of defence.

The public has also been urged to report any remaining pit toilets via the Safe Schools App which was launched in December 2024 to accelerate the eradication of pit toilets in schools across the country.

EASTERN CAPE AND KWAZULU-NATAL LEADS

In November 2024, Gwarube revealed that the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were South Africa’s provinces with the most schools with pit toilets – 575 in total, with the former having 405 and latter having 170.

Gwarube revealed this in a parliamentary response to questions posed by Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane.

Mpumalanga (40) and Limpopo (37) schools made up the rest of the country’s total, with the remaining provinces totally eradicating unsafe pit toilets, according to Gwarube.

Pit latrines have been a concern as political parties and non-profit organisations continue to advocate for their eradication, especially in Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, with the deaths of learners in pit latrines continuing to send shocking waves across South Africa.

In January 2014, five-year-old Michael Komape drowned in human waste when the pit toilet at Mahlodumela Primary School in Seshego, Limpopo, collapsed. The little boy’s body was only discovered four hours later. In 2018, five-year-old Viwe Jali suffered the same fate in the Eastern Cape.

In 2021, advocacy groups Equal Education and Equal Education Law Centre condemned a child abuse incident after a school principal allegedly forced a learner into a pit latrine to remove a cellphone.�

Lubeko Mgandela allegedly ordered the child to undress and to enter the toilet which was full of human faeces.

The child had reportedly been tied with a rope on the upper body and lowered into the toilet pit latrine by other learners to retrieve the Mgandela’s cellphone that had fallen into the toilet.

Mgandela was later banned for life from the profession of teaching.