#KZNPitToilets: MEC must explain where R150m for school sanitation has gone
5 June 2018
Oversight inspections by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to several KwaZulu-Natal schools have revealed that despite a ring-fenced R150 million having been allocated to the province’s Department of Education (DoE) over the last two financial years - to improve sanitation and eradicate pit toilets in schools - learners continue to suffer deplorable conditions, with one Durban-based school so bad that raw sewerage drains into its corridors.
The school, Spearman Road Primary in Sydenham (view here and here) which was built in the 1970s, has a sewerage system that is collapsing, with corroded metal pipes that are so old they cannot be replaced. As a result of the corrosion, the pipes are leaking raw sewerage into the soil.
The school is also built on an incline which leads to sewerage eventually draining into the school corridors. The school was flooded with sewerage earlier this year after a large pipe broke.
Meanwhile, eThekwini’s Health Department has declared the school environment a health hazard. Today, children are still expected to attend this school.
At Pholela High School in Bulwer, the DA found that the school has regressed from using flush toilets to pit toilets. This after the DoE failed to pay municipal water bills. This is nothing short of astonishing. To have proper toilet facilities and then allow a situation where teachers and learners must instead use pit toilets speaks to the worst kind of mismanagement by the DoE.
The DA also found evidence of poor management on the part of the Department at St Faiths Junior Secondary in Umzimkhulu. Here, learners have had to use pit toilets since the school was first established in 1987. However, after the destruction of the mens’ pit toilets during a violent storm in 2015, the DoE spent thousands of rands building a new Environloo system at the school.
Today these 'new' toilets stand unsafe and unused (view here and here) after having been condemned by departmental officials due to a chemical problem. Meanwhile, while learners and teachers have again been subjected to using pit toilets.
Perhaps most damning is that all of these schools have made numerous pleas to the Department for assistance yet their calls have come to nothing.
It is obvious on the ground that the R150 million in sanitation funding has not had the impact that it should have and the DA will today write to KZN portfolio committee Chairperson, Linda Hlongwa-Madlala to request that MEC, Mthandeni Dlungwane appear before the portfolio committee to account for this. In light of the DoE’s current financial crisis, we also expect the MEC to confirm that the R150 million in sanitation funding has not been diverted to combat other shortfalls.
The DA will continue to highlight school sanitation problems. We cannot under any circumstances allow a repeat of the Bizana tragedy, where a Grade R learner drowned in faeces at a school pit toilet earlier this year.
Our learners – whether urban or rural - have the right to a quality education in an environment that is conducive to learning. For many this is the single biggest opportunity they will ever have to escape the trap of poverty and unemployment. The DA will continue to fight for this right on their behalf.
Issued by Rishigen Viranna, DA KZN Spokesperson on Education, 5 June 2018
