South Africa has reached a significant milestone in its effort to improve school sanitation, with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) announcing that every school identified under the 2018 Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) Initiative has now received safe and suitable toilet facilities.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube made the announcement during a visit to Dimbaza Primary School on Monday, describing the completion of the programme as an important achievement in improving learning conditions and safeguarding learners across the country.
Amnesty Praises Achievement but Raises Fresh Concerns
Human rights organisation Amnesty International South Africa welcomed the government’s progress, describing the elimination of pit toilets in schools covered by the SAFE programme as a major step toward protecting children’s rights.
However, the organisation stressed that the announcement should not be interpreted as the end of South Africa’s sanitation crisis in schools.
It warned that many learners may still be attending schools with dangerous pit toilets that were never included in the original government assessment.
According to Amnesty, these overlooked schools continue to expose children to unacceptable health and safety risks.
Call for a New Nationwide Assessment
To address the remaining gaps, Amnesty International urged the Department of Basic Education to launch a comprehensive and updated audit of every school still relying on pit toilets.
The organisation also wants early childhood development centres included in the review, arguing that young children deserve the same level of protection and access to safe sanitation.
In addition, Amnesty called on the department to publish clear deadlines for removing all remaining pit toilets nationwide.
Unsafe Toilets Still Viewed as a Rights Violation
The rights group argued that the continued existence of pit toilets in any educational institution undermines several fundamental rights enjoyed by learners.
It maintained that inadequate sanitation threatens children’s health, compromises their dignity, disrupts access to quality education, and, in some tragic cases, places lives at risk.
Minister Clarifies Scope of the Announcement
While celebrating the completion of the SAFE Initiative, Gwarube made it clear that the achievement only applies to the schools identified during the government’s 2018 audit.
She explained that the announcement does not mean every pit toilet in South Africa has been eliminated.
Some schools may have developed sanitation problems after the original assessment, while others may have been omitted from the audit altogether.
In certain communities, older pit toilet structures have also remained in place despite the construction of newer sanitation facilities.
The minister therefore acknowledged that further work remains to fully eradicate unsafe sanitation across the country’s education system.
Millions of Learners Benefit from Improved Facilities
According to Gwarube, the completed programme has delivered safer and more dignified sanitation facilities to over three million learners as well as more than 48,000 teachers.
The upgraded infrastructure is expected to improve hygiene, enhance learner safety, and create more suitable learning environments in schools that previously depended on unsafe toilet systems.
School Infrastructure Challenges Continue
Despite the sanitation milestone, Gwarube noted that South Africa’s education sector continues to face severe infrastructure challenges.
She estimated the country’s overall school infrastructure backlog at more than R120 billion, with many schools still lacking essential facilities such as classrooms, science laboratories, libraries, secure fencing, and other critical infrastructure.
She urged provincial education departments to identify outstanding sanitation needs quickly and ensure they are addressed without delay.
Communities Encouraged to Protect School Facilities
The minister also highlighted the impact of natural disasters, vandalism, and financial constraints on infrastructure development, warning that these factors continue to slow progress.
She appealed to local communities to help safeguard newly built school facilities, saying that protecting classrooms and sanitation infrastructure is an investment in both learners’ education and South Africa’s future.
