Amnesty International South Africa executive director Shenilla Mohamed on Friday expressed disappointment with the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE’s) missed deadline to eradicate 100% of pit toilets at schools, calling for clarity and transparency about the actual number of schools that are still using pit toilets.

The DBE announced that it had managed to eradicate 96% of pit toilets in schools which are part of its Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) initiative.

The department had had until March 31 to eradicate all pit toilets in these schools.

Speaking at a national event in Limpopo, Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube pointed out that in 2018, 3 372 schools with unsafe pit toilets were identified. Now, 141 of those identified remain.

She said no schools in Gauteng, the Western Cape, and the Northern Cape were identified in 2018, while North West, Free State, and Mpumalanga had seen a 100% eradication.

Limpopo is sitting at 99.74% with 390 of 391 schools completed. KwaZulu-Natal is at 96.4% eradication, with 1 209 of 1 254 schools completed.

And the Eastern Cape is at 93.3% eradication, with 1 343 of 1 439 schools completed.

“While this is significant progress, it is not a victory until every learner has access to safe and dignified sanitation,” said Gwarube.

She added that urgent measures would be taken to complete the remaining 141 schools, with 90 of these scheduled to be completed by July.

She pointed to delays in donor-funded projects, revealing that only 74% of commitments were met and said stalled donor projects will be transferred to provincial education departments for direct oversight.

She said other delays were caused by severe weather conditions, inaccessible rural roads, construction mafia disruptions, and poor contractor performance.

“The Department is taking decisive action, including terminating underperforming contractors and strengthening security for project sites. Recognising that some schools may have been missed in the 2018 audit, the DBE will conduct a new national sanitation audit. The public is also encouraged to report any remaining pit toilets through the Safe Schools App (safeschools.gov.za), which has already received 166 reports,” Gwarube said.

Meanwhile, Mohamed said it was disappointing and unacceptable that the deadline to eradicate pit toilets in schools had been missed, again.

“The DBE has been promising since 2016 that it would eradicate all plain pit toilets from schools, but each year it has broken this promise and shifted the goal posts, violating the human rights of thousands of learners,” said Mohamed.

Amnesty International also raised concerns with the department’s transparency in the toilets it had eradicated, calling on the DBE to provide the actual number of schools still using pit toilets, including those not part of the SAFE initiative, and how it plans to eradicate pit toilets in those schools that are not part of this initiative within clear timelines.

Mohamed pointed out that the use of plain pit toilets in schools violated a learner’s right to health, sanitation, education, dignity and in some cases, life.

Meanwhile, GOOD national youth chairperson Kaden Arguile said the remaining 4% of pit toilets underscored that the goal of 100% eradication was an elusive target, especially in the absence of accurate and up-to-date data.

“In fact, the Minister herself admitted today in Limpopo that, even if the 100% mark is reached, pit toilets will persist. As GOOD we demand that this goal be taken seriously through a nationwide school audit of pit latrines,” Arguile stated.

He pointed out that since 2018, no nationwide school audit hasd been carried out, highlighting that one of the primary obstacles to complete eradication had been the discovery of previously unaccounted-for schools and educational facilities.  

“…this has led to the need for additional funding, planning, and time—all of which delay the progress further. The children in these unaccounted facilities are just as deserving of basic dignity and sanitary conditions, yet government oversight has failed them,” explained Arguile.