As this is the final briefing for year, the Commission would like to take this opportunity to thank members of the media for playing an essential role in our democratic state. Your work is invaluable to us at the Commission as it  enables us to continuously monitor the state of human rights in the country.

The Commission’s mandate is the broadest of all Chapter Nine Institutions as established by the Constitution. The Commission, in terms of its Constitutional mandate is thus responsible for the protection, promotion and monitoring of the observance of all the rights as outlined in the Bill of Rights.

Today we intend dealing with the very serious matter of pit latrines and lack of sanitation in schools in may provinces throughout the country.


The SAHRC to litigate on the matter of continued existence of pit latrines at  schools across five (5) provinces in South Africa

The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission  or the SAHRC) has decided to proceed to litigate against five provinces which still have schools that use pit latrines. The litigation will have as its objective the enforcement of the  Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure, gazetted by the Minister of Basic Education on 26 November 2013 (Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure. The five (5) Provincial Departments of Education (PDEs) in question are:  Mpumalanga; North West; Free State; KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape province. This will be the largest case brought against government since the establishment of the SAHRC.

Background
On the 20th January 2014, when Michael Komape, a Grade R learner at Mahlodumela Primary School went to relieve himself, he never returned to the classroom. He had tragically fallen into the pit latrine that was used by the school when the dilapidated structure caved in. The official cause of his death was listed as ‘aspiration of foreign matter’. Michael Komape drowned in human excrement. He was just five years old.

Prior to this seven-year-old Lister Magongwa died in 2013 after the walls of a toilet collapsed on him at Mmushi Primary School located also in the Limpopo province.

In 2017 and 2018 another two lives were lost to unsafe sanitation when Siyamthandwa Mtunu, and Lumka Mkweta, both from the Eastern Cape Province, fell into and drowned in pit latrines. Siyamthandwa was just six years old and Lumka was five years old, at the time of her death.

Most recently and although not directly relevant to the issue another young life was tragically cut short when a three year old fell into and drowned in a pit latrine at an unregistered Early Childhood Development Centre in KwaZulu Natal on 6 September 2021.

The Regulations Relating to Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure were promulgated in November 2013, and requires the eradication of pit latrines.

Already in 2014, through its report titled The Right to Access Sufficient Water and Decent Sanitation, the Commission cautioned that a lack of access to sanitation violates several basic human rights, including the right to dignity, education and offends the right to a safe and healthy environment. Following the publication of this report the Commission held several meetings with the National Department of Basic Education during which the Commission highlighted the provisioning of water and sanitation to schools as an urgent matter. The national Department committed itself to prioritise and  oversee access to potable water and sanitation by the end of the 2014/2015 year. However education being a concurrent function between the National and Provincial governments, it rests with the provinces to ensure that budgets are aligned to this priority.

Initially, pursuant to the outbreak of Covid 19 and the hard lockdown during which schools were closed, the Commission wrote to all MEC’s on 14 August 2020, requesting them  to provide the Commission with a list of all the schools which will not have some form of water and sanitation by the time learners returned to school on 24 August 2020. This correspondence was followed by more correspondence relating to the matter in November and December 2020 and again in February 2021. Separately, the Commission engaged the National Department of Basic Education in 17 November 2020, bringing to the attention of the Department and seeking the intervention of the Department.

The Commission was concerned about the cooperation it received from the PDEs, in  respect to their compliance to the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure. We were afforded inadequate, non-specific responses provided by some provinces. Therefore on 14 May 2021, the Commission wrote to all the MEC’s  of Education, that they provide the Commission with a comprehensive status of the water and sanitation infrastructure in their respective provinces as of 14 May 2021. The Commission stated that the required information should cover the types of water and sanitation infrastructure available in each school within the province, in line with Regulations 11 and 12 of the Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure.

According to the responses from the Provincial Departments of Education the following is apparent:
·    983 schools in KwaZulu Natal are reliant on pit latrines;
·    9 schools are without water; 44 schools have no form of sanitation and 19 schools use pit latrines in the North West Province;
·    113 schools are without water in the Limpopo Province;
·    59 schools are using pit latrines in Mpumalanga Province;
·    199 schools are without water; and 2 236 schools are using pit latrines in the Eastern Cape Province
·    10 schools are without water; and 5 schools do not have any form of sanitation in the Free State Province.

Upon receipt of the abovementioned information the Commission put six (6) Provincial MEC’s for Education on terms concerning water and sanitation deficiencies at schools in their provinces.  The letters, dated 28 September 2021, putting the MECs on terms required that these provinces provide the Commission with detailed action plans with strict timeframes and tangible measures to overcome the health and physical risks to which learners, educators and administrators are exposed. The action plans needed to include the covering up and securing of pit latrines, which pose a safety risk to learners. The Commission had also informed the MEC’s that it will monitor the responses attentively and take the necessary action, including litigation, if necessary.

Following the aforementioned, tragic death of Michael Komape, the Civil Society organization, Section 27, assisted the family to obtain redress for the pain and suffering they had endured. As a corollary to the relief sought for the family it was also sought to prevent a reoccurrence of the tragic and avoidable loss of life. A structural interdict which provided for oversight by the High Court was sought and granted. In early September 2021 the Limpopo Education Department was ordered to revise a plan previously submitted to the High Court so that time frames and prioritisation of schools for the eradication of pit latrines could be achieved in a shorter time period than proposed by the Department.

While the Court order in the Komape matter will address the problem of pit latrines in Limpopo, the problem in other provinces remains unaddressed. Accordingly the Commission believes that the time has come for this level of action to ensure schools are places of safety for all children in South Africa.

The Commission considers that it is in the interests of protecting the rights to life, dignity, equality, education and in the best interests of the children for it to obtain a similar structural interdict to the one granted by the High Court in Limpopo for all provinces where there are still schools with pit latrines. This will force the provinces to prioritize the eradication of pit latrines in schools and submit detailed plans toward attainment of this objective. Such an interdict will them enable the Commission and other stakeholders to monitor the implementation and execution of the plans.

It is clear from the responses received and the current numbers of schools which still have pit latrines that little has been done to address the problem since the promulgation of the Norms and Standards in 2013. As pointed out by the Limpopo High Court in the Komape matter, the proposed plan to make use of the latest date mentioned in the Norms and Standards, being 2031, for the eradication of pit latrines does not comply with either the Norms and Standards themselves nor with the concept of reasonableness for the realisation of access to basic education.


Every day, thousands of children are denied their right to dignity in schools across the country. By law, children between the ages of 7 and 15 are required to attend school. The state has made exercising the right to basic education compulsory while failing to ensure that all children are able to do so in safety and in dignity.

The dire threat faced by children, on a daily basis, calls for urgent and decisive action. The threat to life and the daily assault on the dignity of children requires that the matter be approached in a strategic manner designed to achieve the desired outcome of safe schools where human rights are respected and the best interests of children is the yard-stick.

This matter has a gender perspective too. Adolescent girl learners who are menstruating are forced to miss school every month due to the lack of privacy, lack of adequate hygienic facillities and the lack of water. Female teachers are also thus  impacted.

The Commission having tried engagement with the relevant authorities sees no other option but to litigate in this regard, as no other strategy is likely to produce the desired result namely, measurable progress towards the eradication of pit latrines in all schools and the provision of an acceptable form of sanitation in those schools currently offering none.  

The relief which the Commission  will seek in this litigation will include:

1.    An order that each of the Provincial Departments that  have identified schools which have either only pit latrines or no available sanitation technology provide the Court and the Commission with:
2.    Costed work plans with targets in relation to each school that includes details of the nature and extent of the installations/ upgrades required for each school and timelines for completion of the identified targets. The timelines should take into account the urgent need to provide access to water and adequate sanitation to all schools, and where necessary a need to put in place temporary measures until the permanent installations are completed.    
3.    Details regarding budgetary allocations or re-allocations to be made available for the installation and upgrades of necessary facilities in accordance with the plan or where such allocation is found to be insufficient to ensure the progressive increments.
4.    Details of maintenance plans for the upkeep of water and sanitation facilities.
5.    An order that the Commission and the Court be provided with reports on a monthly (alternatively quarterly) basis on progress made with the implementation of the action plan according to the timelines mentioned in the plan coupled with the necessary evidence of progressive implementation of the plan in accordance with the timelines set forward therein.

While the Commission intends to bring litigation in this regard in 2022, it is hoped that in prioritizing their budgets for next year, the relevant Provincial Executive Committees will take note of the intention of the Commission and begin the process of prioritization this important matter.

Questions by Members of the Media:

-    Rounds of three questions each will be taken, with order of responses being Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Commissioners, CEO, COO and Provincial Managers.
-    Chairperson can determine who responds to a question.
-    Relevant person responds to question if specifically directed.