Issued by Daniela Ellerbeck on behalf of the FW de Klerk Foundation on 12/03/2025

The FW de Klerk Foundation commends the Department of Basic Education for its remarkable achievement in eliminating over 93% of identified pit toilets in public schools across South Africa. 

“The Department’s Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) initiative is yielding significant results,” states Christo van der Rheede, Executive Director of the FW de Klerk Foundation. “The tragic incidents of children falling into pit latrines and losing their lives should not occur in a country where the right to dignity and children’s rights are enshrined in the Constitution,” van der Rheede emphasises.

Daniela Ellerbeck, an attorney and the Foundation’s Constitutional Rights Programme Manager, adds: “The 2024 Education Facility Management System report disclosed that approximately 1 770 public schools still have both standard facilities and pit latrines with 287 schools relying solely on pit toilets.”

The deadline for eradicating 100% of pit toilets is 31 March 2025.