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Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, says the school where an Eastern Cape girl recently died, had been provided with “South African National Standards approved infrastructure.”
Addressing the media on Sunday, Motshekga said that the Mcwangele Junior Secondary School where the body of four-year-old Langalam Vika was found “had new toilets.”
She also said the child’s body was “found in the tank of a senior toilet,” and not the age-appropriate toilet.
Motshekga questioned why the child would go to a “senior” toilet, was not found “on the pit side” and was too young to lift the manhole that covered the tank.
The Minister also questioned why the child would have been fully dressed if she had been using the toilet.
“These disturbing questions can only be answered by law enforcement. Of course, there are other questions that pertain to management,” Motshekga said.
A SAPS statement on 8 March said that “police are investigating an inquest following the death of a four-year-old learner (girl) whose body was found inside a pit latrine in of one of the primary schools at Vaalbank Administrative Area in Glen Grey..”
DA MP Balixolile Nodada slammed the Minister saying it was clear that neither she nor her Department is willing to accept responsibility “for the danger unsafe pit toilets still pose to learners at schools across the country.”
He accused the Minister of trying to “twist the circumstances” of Viki’s death and after he visited the school last week, said the toilet that the child was found “is the only one” at the school.
The DA also announced legal action in a bid to eradicate pit toilets at all schools, while Nodada would conduct a countywide campaign against pit toilets.
“We will visit as many schools as possible to determine the true situation on the ground.
Last week, lobby group Section 27 also launched the Michael Komape Sanitation Progress Monitor, a tool to track the progress that the Limpopo Education Department was making in eradicating pit latrines in that province.
The five-year-old learner drowned in a pit latrine at his Limpopo school in 2014.
The monitoring tool was launched on Constitutional Hill during the recent Human Rights Festival.
