My recent encounter with a village school that is 85 years older than SA’s democratic constitution has left me shattered. Last month our team travelled from Johannesburg to Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape to launch a mathematics tutoring programme in the province.
We arrived at Mzinto Primary School with the aim to teach mathematics, train tutors in the area and run a grocery distribution campaign to help alleviate hunger among pupils.
Little did we know that that we would end up starting another campaign to help build decent toilets for the pupils. Mzinto has been standing since 1909, meaning it had served the community for 112 years while producing professionals, among them teachers and members of parliament. But the infrustructional conditions at the school are a far cry from the good work done by teachers and other staff members at the institution.
The 116 pupils at the school are faced with having to use rickety corrugated iron structures, broken toilets seats and filthy unhygienic conditions. Their dignity and human rights have been compromised each day they enter the school grounds due to poor sanitation. The plight of the children at Mzinto reflects the conditions suffered by thousands of pupils at rural schools across SA.
The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the need for proper sanitation standards in the communities. SA’s history when it comes to school sanitation, particularly in township and rural schools, leaves very little to be desired. In recent years we have seen heart-wrenching stories of children falling and drowning in pit larines.
It was reported during early September of 2021 that Elihle Nyembe drowned inside the pit toilet of an early learning centre in KwaZulu-Natal. Five-year-old Lumka Mkhethwa made news headlines when she drowned in a pit latrine at Luna Primary School in the Eastern Cape in 2018. Five years before that Michael Komape drowned inside a pit latrine structure at his primary school in Limpopo. Michael, whose story became the inspiration for a wider campaign by civil groups like Section27 against poor school sanitation standards, died a horrible death.
During court proceedings at the Limpopo High Court, it was heard that Michael had suffocated from human waste. This was a terrible way for a child Michael’s age to die. He was deprived of a future and possibly becoming a great member of society by something as seemingly simple as a toilet structure.
As we observed the pit latrines at Mzinto Primary, we knew that it would be careless of us to ignore this plight. We also understood that such conditions are an indictment on society for failing to keep our children safe. Although we had arrived with the mission to teach, we understood that the learning environment had to be safe and conducive.
According to Unicef, when schools have safe water, toilets and soap for handwashing, children have a healthy learning environment, and girls are more likely to attend school when they are on their period. While at Mzinto we heard disturbing reports of pupils using the floors or holding each other for support to avoid falling into the pits because the seats were extremely unstable due to the extensive damage.
According to the latest statistics from the department of basic education, the Eastern Cape seems to have the highest number of pit latrine structures. About 1,098 schools recorded with pit toilets in the province at the beginning of the department's major campaign to eradicate such structures and 178 have been replaced so far.
The department says that the number of pit latrines was reduced from 3,898 to 2,753 schools through the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) initiative which was launched in August 2018.
Within days of sharing the Mzinto Primary School story online we received donations from ordinary South Africans and companies wanting to assist with the building project. Through this call-to-action we have been able to raise more than R34,000 towards the building project for Mzinto.
For now, we remain hopeful in anticipation of the day when we see the children at Mzinto and other schools get decent ablution facilities just one R10 at a time. We do not have to wait for another child to die before fixing the problem.
• Ngobese is an actuarial analyst and the CEO of Wesolve4x
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