This is according to the Department of Basic Education. The department has, in a report set to brief a joint meeting of the portfolio committee on basic education and water and sanitation, said they are reprioritising infrastructure plans and re-organising funds to deal with the scourge of pit toilets at schools across the country. The department says it will, however, cost approximately R7 billion to demolish all school pit latrines and ensure there is appropriate sanitation in those schools by the end of the 2019/20 fiscal year. 

According to their latest audit results, schools with pit latrines only, with unacceptable sanitation, are still mainly found in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Free State, North West, and Mpumalanga.

The department has committed to allocate their entire incentive grant to sanitation projects and highlighted that they have partnered with a number of companies in the private sector who will be making monetary contributions towards the provision of adequate sanitation in the different provinces.

Addressing inadequate sanitation at schools has been prioritised by President Cyril Ramaphosa, following the death of several pupils in schools’ pit toilets earlier this year. In March he instructed the department’s minister, Angie Motshekga, to conduct an audit of school sanitation and develop a strategy to deal with the issue.

The report indicates that the department has started with a number of projects, mainly in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, in efforts to address the sanitation backlog.

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