Missing toddler’s body found in pit toilet in Limpopo

The body of a three-year-old boy has been retrieved from a pit toilet in Polokwane, two days after he went missing.

According to information received by police, the toddler was last seen by his uncle on Sunday morning.

Horrific discovery

His parents reported his disappearance to police, and a search and rescue operation ensued, with the help of a K9 Unit, a provincial search and rescue unit, and emergency services.

K9s reacted in the vicinity of a pit toilet located inside the boy’s family’s yard in Tshino Nditwanin village, and digging began.

The boy’s body was subsequently found, and has been handed over to local police.

“These kind of incidents can only be avoided if we as parents, exercise extra caution and care, and look after our children at all times,” provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe said when the discovery was made.

ALSO READ: Komape family wins court battle seven years after their son drowned in a pit toilet

Pit toilets in Limpopo schools

Though the boy’s death did not occur at a school, the plight of pit toilets at educational instuttions in Limpopo’s Mopani District continue to compromise pupils’ safety and hygiene.

Eight years ago, 5-year-old Michael Komape drowned in a pit toilet at his school near Polokwane, bringing the 1 500 schools using pit latrines across the province under the microscope.

GroundUp reported that despite Komape’s death and a number of tragedies before and after the use of pit toilets continue.

Parents and principals alike have said despite speaking to the education department, nothing was being done.

“Why can’t our government just build our children flushing toilets?” parent Modjadji Kapa asked of the five mobile toilets being used at Masokisi Primary School for the past two years.

Section27 has been in a drawn-out battle with the state over its plans to eradicate the scourge of pit toilets in schools.

“It’s extremely concerning that in 2022 learners still have to use unsafe and undignified school sanitation. Pit toilets pose a fatal risk to the lives, safety and health of learners at our schools,” the organisation’s Motheo Brodie told GroundUp.

The provincial education department told the publication that R140 million has been allocated to Limpopo in the 2022/23 financial year for the construction of new toilets.

NOW READ: Pics: Eight years after Michael Komape’s death Limpopo schools’ pit toilets as bad as ever

Compiled by Nica Richards.