Section27 is closely monitoring whether the Limpopo Department of Education will meet its own March 31 deadline to eradicate and replace all pit toilets at so-called “Priority 1” schools in the province.

The department missed its initial March 2023 deadline to do so and has repeatedly extended this deadline. As part of its monitoring, Section27 also verified the department’s progress at various schools in February this year and expressed concerns regarding some of their findings.

Section27 has been monitoring the department’s progress since December 2021, following a high court order handed down in the Michael Komape case, compelling the department to provide new plans to eradicate and replace basic pit toilets.

The department was also at the time ordered to address other forms of inadequate sanitation at schools in Limpopo, and to report on the implementation of those plans every six months.

As part of its efforts to hold the department accountable and ensure that no other learner dies an avoidable death in unsafe pit toilets, Section27 developed the Michael Komape Sanitation Progress Monitor. This online progress tool contains all the data Section27 has received from the department so far, including its revised plan and subsequent bi-annual reports.

In its reports, the department explains that 3667 schools in Limpopo require assistance; however, some schools have more urgent needs than others. It, therefore, created a system to help prioritise schools. In terms of this system, the department identified 564 “priority 1 schools” as having the most urgent needs. These schools operate with pit toilets only, and the department has undertaken to complete these by the end of this month.

About 1579 “priority 2 schools” have also been identified as schools that have some form of adequate sanitation, but not enough, and the department undertook to assist these schools between 2024 and 2027. It also identified 1524 “priority 3 schools” as schools that have sufficient appropriate sanitation but need maintenance and refurbishment. These schools would be assisted between 2027 and 2029.

Section27, however, said there are some challenges regarding the progress reports. For example, the 2021 court order mandated the department to provide mobile toilets to schools to address urgent sanitation needs.

However, on more than one occasion, Section27 had to engage with the department on the inadequate provision of mobile toilets. On one of its site visits conducted last month, Section27 said it witnessed the unsafe and unsanitary conditions of mobile toilets that learners were forced to use. At one school, eight mobile toilets service over 1000 learners.

“Learners are continuously forced to use these unhygienic and unsanitary toilets regularly, and the construction of new toilets has not begun,” it said. At another school, only four mobile toilets were serving over 570 learners. As many learners must queue during break time, some accidentally relieve themselves while waiting and must be sent home.

At a separate school, Section27 was told that mobile toilets servicing 200 primary school learners were removed without warning, forcing learners to leave school early or not attend at all as no ablution facilities were available.

While mobile toilets were recently returned, this is only for a limited period. Although construction of Enviroloos began some years ago, this has paused and has not yet resumed. Section27 said it will continue to monitor the progress made to, for once and all, eradicate pit toilets.