WeeklySA_AdminRIDDLE:Council wastes money on maintaining ramshackle latrines
By Boitumelo Tshehle
The Moretele Local Municipality in the North West has been given an ultimatum by the South African Human Rights Commission to address the problem of pit toilets in the municipality’s schools in the 76 villages.
The municipality, which has confessed to having been overburdened with the duty of maintaining pit toilets that they erected for residents in the villages have until the end of next month (November ) to submit a solution to the stinking problem.
The mayor, Andres Monaheng said the municipality was facing the painful reality of poor sanitation in these villages. He was responding to the recent call from the SAHRC after it issued a letter of demand to the provincial Education MEC Wendy Matsemela directing that she immediately address the sanitation and water concerns at 32 schools across the province.
Almost all the schools falling under the Moretele municipality do not have proper and sufficient water supplies and teachers and pupils were still using pit toilets. The SAHRC has now given Matsemela until November 29 to come up with a plan to address the problem.
“It’s a big challenge for us. The municipality instead spends a lot of money maintaining pit toilets around the villages. I have a flushing toilet and a pit toilet at my home and I am the mayor. We have been sitting with this problem for decades,” Monaheng said. He said the municipality was situated in a rural area where there were no shopping centres or places which can force the national government to construct sewerage pipes.
“It will take time.” Monaheng said only one out of every ten schools in his municipality had a flushing toilet. “Only few schools that have money have flushing toilets because they dug holes and have septic tanks.”
Some of the schools that the SAHRC complained about under his municipality were Makgabetloane and Kalkbank primary schools. Community members in those areas together with the school management made their own arrangements to make sure that children get educated in a hygienic environment. A teacher at Kalkbank primary school said they bought hand towels that they give to the learners to wipe their hands with after using the toilet.
Their school uses a pit toilet and they drew water from a borehole. “ Learners in a class are given a hand towel which they share daily to wipe their hands after using the toilets. They rotate in washing the towel at their homes on a weekly basis,” she said. A parent, Granny Molelekeng said it was normal for them to use pit toilets and that it does not bother them because even at their homes they use pit toilets. “There is no way that we can have a flushing toilet because the municipality has not installed sewerage pipes in our area’’.
Meanwhile, at Moruleng in Rustenburg, the schools that use pit toilets have an arrangement with their learners. A woman who cooks for the learners at one of the schools said:
“They bring their own water bottles so that they can wash their hands after helping themselves in the toilet. It’s also a problem because most of the time not all the children bring water bottles to school.”
Sahrc commissioner Andre Gaum said 16480 schools in the North West ran under poor sanitation and lacked water. He said Sahrc received the shocking report from education officials. “In all the provinces, including North West they were the ones that told us that there were schools that did not have water and others were still using pit toilets,” he said.
Gaum said it was a concern to the Commission that several schools in the North West Province still do not have access to any water and any form of sanitation.
“In contravention not only of the norms of standards, but of several basic human rights.” he said. He said the education officials should have indicated that it was not that water was not there altogether. “They should have indicated if there was a source of water. Pit toilets are also unsafe, we want action plans or for those affected schools to close.” he said.
North West education spokesperson Elias Malindi said they were compiling a report about the Sahrc report. “The department is aware of the letter from Sahrc and it is busy preparing a report to respond to the raised questions and concerns.” he said.
Sahrc ordered provincial education Mec Maphefo Matsemela together with her five counterparts from KZN, Limpopo, Free State, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga to address lack of sanitation and water including the use of pit toilets.
