Eastern Cape and KZN have the highest number of schools with pit toilets

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has disclosed that the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have the highest number of schools with pit toilets in South Africa, totaling 575 schools—405 in the Eastern Cape and 170 in KZN.

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 make up the rest of the country’s total, with the remaining provinces totally eradicating unsafe pit toilets, according to Gwarube.

These numbers come as World Toilet Day nears, with 19 November set down by the United Nations as a day to highlight the “need for all human beings to have access to proper sanitation”.

DEPARTMENT OF BASIC EDUCATION FAILS TO ERADICATE PIT TOILETS

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.

However, in November 2024, the Department of Basic Education has missed all the initial deadlines (2016 and 2020) and new deadlines, including ones set for the end of February 2023.

In the response, Gwarube said some schools have both proper toilets and pit latrines on site.

The number of schools with pit toilets per province

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.

The deaths of learners in pit latrines continue 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 child 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.

NO RUNNING WATER IN SOME SCHOOLS

Additionally, Gwarube revealed that there were still schools with no running water in the country and some had been provided with water tankers.