SANITATION
R10 BILLION TO ELIMINATE PIT TOILETS AT SCHOOLS South Africa’s protracted school sanitation crisis, which comes with an estimated R10 billion price tag to eradicate pit latrines, has prompted a call to action for corporates, nongovernment organisations and ordinary citizens to help restore the dignity of the country’s most disadvantaged learners.
L
aying down the challenge on World Toilet Day on 19 November, Unilever and its brand Domestos shone the spotlight on the country’s notso-secret shame: tens of thousands of learners at close to 4 000 state schools are still being deprived of their fundamental human right to water and sanitation. “If there is any hope of realising the government’s target of eliminating pit latrines at the country’s schools by March 2022 – only about 16 months from now – we are all going to have to step up our efforts,” says
38
JAN/F E B 2021
Henry Muchauraya, marketing director: Home & Hygiene, Unilever. SAFE In August 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) plan to eradicate these pit latrines across all schools in the following two years. During the 2019 State of the Nation Address, he reaffirmed the commitment, but increased the implementation period by a year. At the time, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) commented that the responsibility for raising the
