By Thapelo Molefe
More than seven years after the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) initiative was launched with the promise of eradicating pit latrines in schools, Section27 insists the government’s progress claims do not match conditions on the ground.
While the Department of Basic Education (DBE) maintains that 98% of the 3,372 schools identified in its 2018 audit have now been completed, Section27 says the state’s reporting is “inaccurate” and obscures the true scale of unsafe sanitation still facing learners.
Provinces themselves also concede there are hundreds of schools that continue to rely on pit toilets, contradicting the national narrative of near-total eradication.
Section27 attorney Thato Gaffane, who has been monitoring conditions specifically in Limpopo, told Inside Education that the ongoing presence of pit latrines, more than 30 years into democracy, reflected persistent and constitutional failure.
“We are very concerned about the state of infrastructure in schools, particularly when it comes to pit latrines,” she said.
“It’s been over 30 years of democracy, over 12 years of the Michael Komape judgment… but unfortunately, they’ve not fast-tracked them. We’re still experiencing the very same issues that we have been fighting against for the past 30 years.”
The concerns Gaffane highlights are grounded in detailed research by Section27.
After the death of five-year-old Komape in a dilapidated pit latrine in Limpopo in 2014, a court ordered the Limpopo Department of Education (LDE) to provide a full list of rural schools with pit toilets.
Section27 collected data from 86 schools in the province between May and July 2018 and found that nearly half still had unlawful pit toilets, with 19 schools omitted entirely from the LDE’s official list.
Schools such as Allegraine Primary, Dithamaga Primary, Loboli Secondary, and Utjane Primary were among those not listed, despite unsafe or non-compliant facilities. Many children were forced to use bushes, and some schools were waiting years for replacements.
The DBE insists it has nearly completed the job. Ministerial spokesperson Lukhanyo Vangqa said the department was “determined to turn the page on one of the most painful chapters in our democracy, the use of pit latrines in schools”.
He added that, In April, the minister announced that 96% of the pit latrines identified in the 2018 SAFE Initiative audit had been eradicated and that the figure has since risen to 98%.
According to the DBE, 3,302 of the 3,372 projects listed in the original audit are complete, with the remaining 70 confined to KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
But provincial reporting contradicts that picture.
The Eastern Cape Department of Education confirmed that 427 schools in the province still rely on pit latrines as their primary form of sanitation, a figure vastly higher than the DBE’s national remaining total.
Provincial spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said these schools were part of a three-year rollout to replace unsafe sanitation, noting that “60 projects have already been allocated to an Implementing Agent for implementation”.
Mtima said the province was installing Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) toilets and other dry sanitation technologies, which are “sustainable in rural and remote areas where access to reliable water supply remains a challenge”.
The Eastern Cape also confirmed it inherited 16 stalled projects after donor partners withdrew funding, forcing the province to redirect them to the Schools Infrastructure Backlogs Grant.
“These projects experienced delays,” Mtima said, adding that they have now been reallocated to ensure continued implementation.
KwaZulu-Natal, which originally had 1,377 schools with pit toilets, reported that 1,291 have been upgraded. However, 32 schools remain under construction, and 54 have been closed after being declared “non-viable”.
Provincial spokesperson Mlu Mtshali said the 32 outstanding schools “were earmarked for completion during the end of 2024/25 financial years,” but budget cuts delayed the work.
“They are currently undergoing construction and are targeted for completion during 2025/26,” Mtshali said.
Section27 disputes official progress claims, saying they are not credible without independent verification. Gaffane said this was especially evident in Limpopo, where the provincial department reported to court that only five schools still had pit toilets.
“Regrettably, there’s still far more schools that need adequate infrastructure,” she said.
“That reporting is inaccurate and doesn’t reflect the reality on the ground.”
She added that even in Limpopo, where some new sanitation infrastructure has been installed, dangerous pit toilets remain standing.
“You would think that when you build a different alternative facility… you would abolish the pit latrines. But unfortunately, the department has not been doing that.”
Gaffane said mobile toilets that were intended as short-term stopgaps have, in some cases, become semi-permanent despite poor maintenance. She noted that Limpopo schools were among those affected.
“There’s been prolonged usage in some areas… they are overly used, and they no longer appear to be a temporary measure.”
The DBE acknowledged the complexities of implementing school infrastructure across provinces but maintains that oversight mechanisms are in place.
“Each project has a dedicated Professional Service Provider (PSP) that provides independent monitoring and management of the construction site,” Vangqa said.
He added that the department conducts regular oversight visits to assess progress, quality and performance.
He admitted, however, that recent changes in education infrastructure financing have weakened national oversight.
“Fiscal reforms… have devolved greater implementation responsibility to provinces,” he said.
“Though this consolidation improves efficiency, it reduces the DBE’s direct oversight of project execution.”
The department is also “deeply concerned when provinces return unspent infrastructure allocations to the National Treasury while learners continue to endure overcrowded or unsafe school environments.”
The Eastern Cape confirmed it had previously returned unspent funds in 2016, although it did not elaborate on the reasons.
The province cited several ongoing “challenges”, including poor contractor performance, business forum disruptions, vandalism of new facilities, climate-related disasters, and schools resisting the demolition of unsafe toilets. High-risk districts include Alfred Nzo, OR Tambo and Amathole.
Section27 said that failures in planning, contracting and oversight lie at the heart of the SAFE initiative’s slow progress.
“The biggest failure was that there was no risk assessment that was done or the risk assessment that was done was inadequate,” Gaffane said.
She cited cases where contractors went unpaid for months, engineers were not compensated, and work stalled because community members demanded hiring commitments.
“It really just shows you how the DBE has gone about the project,” she said.
“You would think that if you’re going to embark on such a big and important initiative… you would do a risk assessment.”
Gaffane said the persistence of pit latrines represents a direct breach of learners’ constitutional rights.
“You simply cannot say that someone is afforded that particular right if they’re not able to study while enjoying other rights — the right to a clean and safe environment, the right to dignity, the right to equality,” she said.
As deadlines continue to be missed, Section27 warned of the consequences.
“It means more risk to learners… who are going to continue to study with this infrastructure that is being declared inappropriate by the court,” Gaffane said.
She pointed to conditions at Thamsanqa Secondary School in the Eastern Cape as an example.
“Learners are studying in an environment where there’s no roof… the toilet, there’s a pit toilet and at the back of the pit toilet there’s such a huge hole… if you slip and fall, you could literally fall into the pit toilet.”
The DBE maintains it will complete the remainder of the 2018-identified schools by the end of the current financial year.
INSIDE EDUCATION
