As people around the globe commemorated World Toilet Day 2018, South Africans were reminded of the dire sanitation situation facing schools across the country.

For learners from nearly 4 000 South African schools answering natures call is not always possible because they do not have proper toilets.

On Monday civil society groups gathered in Sandton for the World Toilet Day Flush Forum, hosted by Domestos South Africa and Unilever, aimed at sharing ideas on how to bring an end to the sanitation crisis affecting our schools.

According to an audit by the Department of Education nearly 4 000 schools across the country do not have access to proper toilets but rather make use of pit toilets while the more than 3 000 schools who do have access to proper sanitation still have pit toilets that have not been demolished.

The importance of eradicating pit toilets in South African schools has been highlighted recently by several pit-toilet related deaths including that of six-year-old Michael Komape’s in 2014 and Lumka Mketwa at an Eastern Cape primary school earlier this year.

Private sector partnerships key

Commenting on the Department of Education’s message for World Toilet Day Solly Mafoko, Chief Director in the department’s Infrastructure Directorate said that they are committed to eradicating pit toilets in schools.

“We’ve set ourselves a target of making sure that by the next financial year we’ve eliminated all pit toilets in our schools, but most importantly as well is that after providing those toilets we must make sure that they are properly maintained to ensure learners have the dignity that they deserve.”

Mafoko added that the department is looking to partner with the private sector to help expedite the process.  “We are making a concerted effort to partner with the private sector so that this does not become an issue facing the department of basic education and government only. It is a joint responsibility to make sure that we do this for our learners,” he highlighted.

Limpopo schools

Meanwhile Social justice organisation Section 27 released a report on the state of sanitation in rural Limpopo on Monday.

According to the report 41 of the 86 schools the organisation collected data from had unlawful pit toilets. Furthermore only 22 of those schools were on the Limpopo education department’s August 2018 pit list meaning that 19 schools with pit toilets have been left off the list.

The organisation noted that schools that are not on the list compiled by the Limpopo Department of Education are unlikely to be on the list given to the President for is SAFE Initiative.

The report highlighted that there appears to be a few discrepancies in the numbers being reported by various departments and that credible information on backlogs is still lacking.