Amnesty International South Africa urged the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to work with the South African Police Service to expedite the investigation into the death of three-year old Unecebo Mboteni. 

In April 2024, Mboteni fell into a pit toilet at his pre-school, Little Champions Day Care Centre, in the Eastern Cape. He was rushed to hospital but died the next day.

Amnesty International said his parents Loyiso and Andwisa are still waiting for justice and for those responsible to be held accountable.

“It is outrageous that Unecebo died after falling in a pit toilet surrounded by faeces and urine and to this day no one, including the Department of Basic Education and the Little Champions Day Care Centre, has taken sufficient responsibility for the incident,” said Amnesty International South Africa executive director Shenilla Mohamed.

She said Unecebo’s parents are not even sure if the pit toilet he was found in has been removed.

Following his death, Unecebo’s parents opened a case and earlier this year, they received a call from the investigating officer requesting access to the doctor’s report. The officer then apparently mentioned that it could take three to four years for the police to do a thorough investigation into Unecebo’s death

Amnesty International said it was outraged at the timeline of the police investigations.

“…we cannot allow Unecebo’s death to be buried in silence or his case forgotten in the shadows. Unecebo and his family deserve justice — and nothing less,” stated Mohamed.

Since 2018, Unecebo is the third child to be found in a pit toilet in the Eastern Cape.

“In March 2023, little four-year-old Langalam Viki, a preschooler, was found dead in a pit toilet. In 2018, five-year-old Lumka Mkhethwa drowned in a pit toilet at Luna Primary School. Yet the senseless loss of these young lives has not been enough to ensure the eradication of all pit toilets in schools in the province,” she said.

Plain pit toilets were banned from South African schools by the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure in 2013 and had to be removed and replaced by 2016.

Since 2016, the DBE has promised to eradicate all plain pit toilets from schools but each year.

“The DBE’s target, however, was not based on all schools but on those schools which formed part of its Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) initiative, which was launched in 2018. However, there are many schools still using pit toilets which have not been accounted for, and lives have been lost.

“We cannot have a single child still using these illegal, dangerous plain pit toilets 31 years after South Africa obtained its freedom. This is just another indication that many schools and the communities they serve continue to live with the consequences of the political and economic decisions made during the apartheid era,” Mohamed said.

Amnesty International South Africa wants the DBE to provide clarity and transparency about the actual number of schools still using pit toilets, including those not part of the SAFE initiative, and how it plans, with clear timelines, to eradicate those not part of this initiative.

The DBE has also recently taken on the responsibility for Early Childhood Development centres and needs to include these in its new audit, the organisation said.