Pit toilets still in 20 schools as Limpopo misses deadline

Twenty Limpopo schools are still using pit toilets after the provincial basic education department missed two deadlines to eradicate them.

The department said yesterday it would need close to a R1 billion to ensure no schools have pit latrines in the province.

“We have just over R970 million set aside to deal with the remaining inappropriate sanitation,” department spokesperson Mike Maringa said yesterday.

Dept needs R1bn to get rid of pit toilets in schools

Maringa said his department was working with the Development Bank of South Africa, the National Education Collaboration Trust, the Independent Development Trust and the Limpopo department of public works, roads and infrastructure to replace the old toilets.

“Schools were prioritised based on what we have on the ground.

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“We have so far missed two deadlines – 2023 and 2024 – to meet the high court judgment,” said Maringa.

Earlier, the department argued that the eradication process could only be completed in 2030.

On 17 September, 2021, high court Judge Gerrit Muller ruled that the minister of basic education and the MEC of the Limpopo department of basic education had 90 days to come up with a revised and detailed plan for the eradication of pit toilets and to replace them with safe toilets.

Eradication could only be completed in 2030 – department

But the department had argued in court that it could only complete the eradication process in 2030, citing budgetary constraints.

The department said that the sanitation infrastructure projects would likely only start between 2026 and 2028 and be completed between 2028 and 2030.

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In a scathing judgment at that time, Muller said that the department’s projection that it would only be able to replace the pit toilets with more modern sanitation over a period of 14 years was “unreasonable and unconstitutional”.

Maringa said this week the reasons for missing the deadlines set by the high court varied.

They included disruptions caused by community forums.

Reasons for missing deadlines

“Even though they do not participate in tenders, they still demanded 30% of the work on projects.

“Another setback that delays the completion process is the poor performance by contractors, and project funding, among many other aspects,” said Maringa.

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During a back-to-school campaign in Burgersfort on the first day of the 2025 academic year, school governing body secretary for Mmiditsi Secondary School, in Bordershoek near Practiseer Jack Maleka said over 1 400 pupils in Mmiditsi had to use four pit latrines.

He said eight other toilets were in an unusable poor state, underscoring the difficulties some rural Limpopo school pupils and teachers are confronted with every school day.

“We applied for assistance from the department moons ago, but all it has been is promise after promise.

‘We need safe toilets in our school’

“Our fear is that in using dilapidated toilets some pupils may pay the price with their lives.

“Please MEC, we need safe toilets in our school,” said Maleka.

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