The Eastern Cape government says it will speed up efforts to eradicate hundreds of pit latrines in provincial schools, setting an ambitious target of doing away with 300 such structures during this financial year.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane revealed on Thursday that 427 schools continued to use unsafe and unhygienic toilet structures, some of which have claimed young lives.
Delivering his state of the province address, Mabuyane conceded that 427 schools with pit toilets “pose a serious risk to the lives of pupils”.
He said the plan to eradicate 300 pit latrines in 2026 would be done through his office and in partnership with the provincial education department.
“Our intention is to protect our children and provide them with dignity,” he said.
Mabuyane acknowledged the province has 458 schools “built with inappropriate material”.
In 2025, the government completed the construction of 25 new schools in the Eastern Cape.
In January, the province marked the start of the 2026 academic year by officially opening the state-of-the-art Sitoza Senior Secondary School in the Dr AB Xuma municipality.
Mabuyane said that in 2026 the construction of 57 schools would be completed for handover to communities.
These include Lupindo Senior Secondary in Alfred Nzo, David Livingstone High in Nelson Mandela Bay, Upper Corana in OR Tambo, Jongulwandle in Amathole, and Khanyisa Special School in the Chris Hani district.
“It’s a tall order we are attending to with the seriousness it deserves,” Mabuyane said.
Less than a year ago, the Eastern Cape came under intense scrutiny after it missed its deadline to eradicate pit latrines in schools flagged to have unsafe toilets, forcing hundreds of pupils in nearly 100 schools to relieve themselves in the open or in unsafe structures.
In April 2025, basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube said the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) initiative eradicated 96%, or more than 3,000 pit latrines audited in 2018 across the country by the March 2025 deadline.
Greyspan Primary in Cacadu is one of the 427 schools with a pit toilet problem.
Parents are constantly worried that at any moment there could be a report of a child falling and drowning in the toilets.
Small children are forced to go outside the school premises and find alternative places to relieve themselves such as nearby bushes
— Silvia Nkwentsha, Greyspan school governing body chair
The situation is so bad that children have to either relieve themselves in the bushes or use toilets with no seats, or even use toilets with seats but which have broken walls.
Greyspan school governing body chair Silvia Nkwentsha said the situation was so dire that many parents were withdrawing their children from the school.
“Small children are forced to go outside the school premises and find alternative places to relieve themselves such as nearby bushes.
“This is not safe, they have to relieve themselves in spaces with snakes and people walking around.
“Others even end up going home to relieve themselves and do not return,” Nkwentsha said.
With two children in the school, one in grade R and the other in grade 7, Nkwentsha said she welcomed the premier’s move to do away with 300 pit latrines in this financial year.
“I welcome this [promise] because they are saying they will do it, but the hope that they will actually do it is not that high.”
Zonwabisile Poyi, whose grandchild is a pupil at the school, described the situation as ugly.
“The toilets are extremely ugly, they are a danger to the children.
“People need to continually look after the children because if not, something could happen,” Poyi said.
Daily Dispatch
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