A six-year-old boy escaped with a few bruises and a swollen face when he fell into a hole of what used to be a pit latrine at Lutholi Junior Secondary School in Libode this week.
The Grade 1 pupil was rescued by other pupils and teachers, covered in human faeces, on Monday. He fell into the hole at the school in Sibangweni village, 10km from Mthatha.
Pupils have been using the exposed holes in the ground for years while others have to relieve themselves in nearby open fields.
Lutholi is one of 60 schools Equal Education (EE) had red-flagged for poor school infrastructure in 2016.
The boy’s grandmother, who cannot be named to protect the boy’s identity and dignity, told the Daily Dispatch on Wednesday that her grandson arrived home “dirty and smelling” of human faeces.
The boy is the latest pupil to fall into a pit latrine at school.
Lumka Mkhethwa, 5, died in the broken pit latrine of her Mbizana school in March last year.
The boy’s grandmother said: “I am deeply hurt by this whole thing. My grandchild came home bruised and when I asked how it happened the teachers apologised. I had to bathe him again. He was angry and did not go to school the following day. The department of education must build proper toilets for our children in rural communities. We do not like to see children suffer like this.”
School governing body chairperson Tolekile Noraqa lambasted the department and accused the office of MEC Fundile Gade of being “slow” to provide adequate facilities at the school.
“The community is disappointed, the department does not care about us, the classrooms leak when it rains , there are no toilets and children have to relieve themselves in the veld. We have been asking the department for adequate toilets to prevent an accident from happening as we had seen in other schools where children die after drowning in pit toilets. We never wanted things to get to this point. We have written letters to the department since 2016.”
He said parents had marched to the department’s offices in Mthatha on Monday.
“When we came back we received the news that a child nearly died in the school toilets. The department is playing hide and seek and they are not answering us.”
Equal Education spokesperson Leanne Jansen-Thomas, said they had been raising the school’s plight for years, with no success. “We again sharply raised the terrible state of the school’s infrastructure with the EC departmen of education as an urgent matter in April 2018. And yet there are still dilapidated and dangerous pit latrines – it is unlawful and unconscionable.”
Eastern Cape education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima, who confirmed the incident, said R3.7m had already been allocated towards upgrading the school, fencing and sanitation. “The department is aware of this and as such we had appointed a contractor to do major renovations that include ablution facilities and fencing at the school.
“The construction should be done by January next year,” he said.
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