President of UAT Doctor Bantu Wanda Mahlatsi
By Tsakane Manganyi
National Media Liaison Officer
The United Africans Transformation (UAT) is appalled and heartbroken by yet another failure of the so-called Government of National Unity (GNU) to protect the most basic rights of South African children.
The Department of Basic Education, under Minister Siviwe Gwarube, has once again missed its own deadline this time, the March 2025 promise to finally eradicate pit toilets in schools.
Let us be clear: these are not just toilets.
They are symbols of abandonment, danger, and injustice.
As of today, many schools across our country still rely on these deadly structured places where children are meant to learn, grow, and be safe.
Instead, many are forced to use latrines that have already claimed young lives and continue to put others at risk every single day.
Minister Gwarube admitted that they fell just “4% short.”
But that 4% represents thousands of children—human beings whose lives are being gambled with.
No child should ever have to relieve themselves in a pit that could swallow them.
No family should have to fear that their child won’t come home because of something as basic as a toilet.
What’s worse, we now learn that in KwaZulu-Natal, all Department of Basic Education infrastructure projects have been put on hold.
The Department of Public Works has officially confirmed this in a letter dated 7 April 2025, citing unresolved payment issues with the provincial education department.
So even the little hope communities had of finally seeing construction and change is now suspended, indefinitely.
We’ve heard these promises before in 2016, in 2020, and again in 2018 with the launch of the SAFE initiative.
Deadlines come and go, yet children in poor, rural, and township schools continue to suffer in silence while those in power issue apologies and move on.
We are demanding the following:
A full and honest national audit of every school especially those forgotten in the 2018 count.
The immediate resumption of all suspended infrastructure projects.
Real answers on where the money has gone (as projects were planned and budgeted for) and why payments to contractors have been held up.
Accountability from officials who have failed in their duty to protect our children.
We also urge members of the public to use the Safe Schools App to report any pit toilets that still exist.
Communities must be empowered to speak out and be heard.
South Africa deserves better.
Our children deserve better.
And their lives must never be treated as footnotes in failed government reports. This is not a political issue.
It is a human one. It is about dignity, safety, and the future of our nation.