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EDWIN NAIDU
FOUR-YEAR-OLD Langalam Viki drowned in a pit latrine toilet in Vaalbank in Eastern Cape early in March. The tragedy highlighted the failure of the Department of Basic Education to get rid of pit latrine toilets, despite adopting the minimum uniform norms and standards for public school infrastructure, which banned them at schools in 2013.
The norms and standards created a legal responsibility for the department and provincial departments to eradicate pit latrines at schools. However, 3,398 schools countrywide still have pit latrine toilets. Over the past decade, there have been many horror stories like that of Viki.
This is one tragedy, too many.
On Sunday, the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, pledged to tackle the problem within two years. While the Minister’s commitment is welcomed, one wonders how the department, which has failed to tackle this problem over the past decade, will address it in two years.
Basic Education has made a dent in the outstanding number, fixing a paltry 117 toilets.
Credit for raising awareness of this problem must go to civil society organisations, like Equal Education and Amnesty International, both of which have consistently raised the issue, highlighting the tardiness of the department in swiftly eradicating pit latrine toilets.
In a year, South Africans will go to the polls. Politicians are mindful of the mood of the people.
One can easily label the Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen as opportunistic in visiting the dead child’s parents. But Nelson Mandela did not own the trademark on compassion.
Sadly, the leaders left behind have not adopted his caring nature.
Yet, one cannot disagree with his saying that schools should be safe spaces for our children, not gravesites. Steenhuisen argues that Human Rights Day could not be commemorated until every child had access to safe and dignified sanitation at school. The parents of little Viki would agree.
“The drowning of our children in pit toilets goes far beyond a human rights violation; it is a horror that no South African should ever be forced to contemplate,” Steenhuisen lamented.
While Motshegka told the media that it would eradicate pit latrines by 2025, the DA went further, proposing a two-point plan to eliminate pit toilets at schools across the country.
In two years, Motshekga, one of the longest-serving education ministers in Africa, is unlikely to remain in her job. Who will be held accountable should the Department of Basic Education not deliver on its promise? It is not an option one would like to contemplate.
Therefore, one hopes that the DBE will pull out all the stops to eradicate at least half the pit latrines by the time democracy celebrates its 30th year in 2024. While the grieving parents of Langalam Viki mourn their little girl whose promising life was snuffed out, Motshekga must act with urgency.
Failure is not an option.
INSIDE EDUCATION
