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In the past two years, President Cyril Ramaphosa has made no mention of the progress of the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (Asidi), which was meant to eradicate inadequate, unsafe and poor infrastructure at schools.
In 2018, five-year-old Lumka Mketwa drowned in a pit latrine at Luna Primary School in Bizana, in the Eastern Cape. Following her death, Ramaphosa launched the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) initiative to address sanitation challenges at schools, particularly in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.
READ: Another pit latrine death as billions are cut from school infrastructure project
The last time Asidi and Safe were mentioned in Ramaphosa's state of the nation address (Sona) was in 2019. At the time, the president said that the safety of pupils was critical for creating a healthy learning environment.
"We recall with deep sadness the tragic deaths of Michael Komape, who drowned in a pit toilet at Mahlodumela Primary School in Limpopo in 2014, and Lumka Mketwa, from Luna Primary School in the Eastern Cape, who lost her life in March last year. We conducted an audit last year and found that nearly 4 000 schools still have inappropriate sanitation facilities," he said.
Ramaphosa said the Safe initiative had seen the provision of appropriate sanitation facilities at 699 schools and that projects to improve facilities at a further 1 150 schools were either in the planning, design or construction stage.
He promised:
Meanwhile, in September, while responding to questions in Parliament, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said the Asidi and Safe programmes had seen to the eradication of pit toilets in 3 376 schools, with plans to eradicate unsafe facilities at a further 912 schools in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years.
READ: Tiny Lebelo | Give rural schoolchildren the dignity of decent toilets
Ramaphosa, while addressing the basic education lekgotla last week, said government was working hard to ensure that pupils were able to receive education in dignified conditions that supported their health and wellbeing.
"Through Safe, we have so far been able to construct 50 000 sanitation facilities at 2 388 schools. A further 15 000 appropriate toilets were constructed at 1 047 schools as part of Asidi. The basic education department has assured me that all remaining Safe sanitation projects at approximately 1 000 schools are scheduled for completion in the next financial year," he said.
