Lack of toilets at Limpopo schools a reality and indefinite future

The Limpopo Department of Education has delivered empty promises, defied court orders and missed deadlines in failing in its responsibilities to learners pursing their education within public schools in the province. The department has not eradicated dilapidated and old pit toilets as ordered by court.

In 2018, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) promised parents and learners that they would eradicate all pit toilets in public schools by 2022, but three years later, more than 230 schools across the country (with most of them in Limpopo) are still using plain pit toilets, which pose a danger and a health hazard to users.

The provincial education department was ordered by the Limpopo High Court to replace all pit toilets within public schools by the 1st of April 2023, which they failed to do, and again when the extended deadline lapsed a year later. And again when the latest deadline, 31 March 2025 lapsed two weeks ago. This has left learners and parents with never-ending questions, on whether the department will ever be able to provide their schools with proper sanitation.

During her oversight visit to Limpopo on the 4th of April, Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube said the DBE had managed to eradicate 96% of pit toilets. Gwarube said that 141 schools still have unsafe toilets and these will be replaced in the next 3 months.

Pit toilets demolished, replaced by portaloos

Some of the schools have been left stranded after pit toilets at their schools were demolished by the department last year, but they were never replaced. Instead, schools were given too few mobile toilets which filled up too quickly to be usable for very long.

“It’s been years now waiting for new proper blocks of sanitation but even now we continue to wait and it seems like we are still going to wait for many years to come. Last year, the department sent a contractor, who came and destroyed all the pit toilets which learners and teachers have been using, but till today, there is no sign that construction will begin anytime soon,” says Rotshidzwa Maluga, the chairperson of the school governing body at Mabila Primary School.

A poster by Amnesty International using sanitised faeces collected from pit latrines across the country. Picture: Supplied

Situated outside of Thohoyandou, Mabila is one of several schools within the Vhembe district which do not have adequate sanitation.

Maluga says that though the department of education has provided the school with temporary mobile toilets, they have not solved the problem, and made it worse.

“This mobile toilets might be safe for learners to use but they get full quickly within a few days, but the department takes weeks to come and empty them posing health risks to our kids,” says Maluga.

The school is yet to be informed on when the construction of new sanitation blocks will commence at the school. “No one is saying anything and it seems like they only destroyed the pit toilets to stop us from complaining. And it seems like they do not have any plans in place to construct new toilets, which is very wrong as learners are suffering at the moment. Imagine being told that you cannot use the toilet, because it is full!” says Maluga.

According to activist organisation, Equal Education (EE), which has for years been vocal about pit toilets in Limpopo schools, the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) claim that they will only eradicate plain pit toilets in the province by March 2031 due to budgetary restrictions, is indefensible. “The failure to meet deadlines, the continued existence of dangerous sanitation, and the absence of sufficient funding are all symptoms of broader failure of governance and planning. We cannot afford another empty promise,” says Ayanda Wigzell, EE communication manager.

Dzivhani Primary School, situated outside of Thohoyandou is another school which has been left confused after its pit toilets were demolished last year to be replaced by only four mobile toilets.

“Most of the days when my son comes back home, he tells me that he was not able to use the [mobile] toilet because they were smelling terribly as they are always full of faeces and are never cleaned,” says Irene Mulovhedzi, whose son is a grade 3 learner at the school.

She says that at parents meetings they always ask the school management when the construction of a new sanitation block will begin but they are also clueless. “No one knows, including the principal, when will the school get new toilets and why the mobile toilets are not cleaned regularly. It seems like the department does not care about the health and safety of our children and I wonder why did they demolish the pit toilets without a plan in place and give us false hope,” says Mulovhedzi.

Civil society organisation, Section 27, says that during one of its site visits to Limpopo schools in February this year, they witnessed the unsafe and unsanitary conditions of mobile toilets that learners were forced to use. At one school, just eight mobile toilets were available to over 1,000 learners. “Within days, these toilets are maggot infested, with an unbearable stench and are only cleaned once a week during school hours. Learners are therefore continuously forced to use these unhygienic and unsanitary toilets on a regular basis and the construction of new toilets has not begun,” says Section 27 in a media statement.

The situation is much worse at Rivubye High School in Valdezia where over 900 learners share three blocks of pit toilets, which are in such a condition learners are forced to relieve themselves in the bushes. The department has yet to demolish the structure, as they have done in most schools within the province. Both the school governing body and school management refused to speak to Elitsha or allow us to film the daily ordeal which learners face while using the dangerous pit toilets.

“I also do not know why they do not want us to share with the media the challenges being faced by learners on a daily basis. The situation is as bad as learners using the bushes instead, because the toilets are not in a usable condition and they pose a danger to the lives of the learners,” says a teacher at Rivubye, who wished to remain anonymous.