The Limpopo Department of Education says although more than 600 schools in the province are still using pit toilets, plans to get rid of them are on course. Provincial Education MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya says they’re in the second phase of complying to the Appeal Court order in the Komape case.
The landmark ruling ordered schools to systematically do away with unsafe sanitation.
This after five-year-old Michael Komape died after falling into a pit toilet at Chebeng village in January 2014.
Lerule-Ramakhanya was addressing the media in Polokwane.
“In Limpopo, we have got nearly 660 schools that are on the pit latrines, and we can confirm that the first priority to deal with them … we are talking about the mud toilets that were existing, that’s why now we are on 97% when it comes to the pit latrines of the Enviro Loo. Those are no longer pit latrines, but we call them enviro loos because they can easily be maintained,” she says.
