In a move to eradicate pit toilets in public schools, Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, has launched a digital app called Safe Schools, to address the pressing issue.

This comes a month after she said there were 652 schools with pit latrines, with 170 being in KwaZulu-Natal followed by 405 in Eastern Cape, 40 in Mpumalanga, and 37 in Limpopo.

Gwarube revealed this in a written reply to parliamentary questions from Build One SA (Bosa) Leader Mmusi Maimane.

Over the past years, schoolchildren across the country have died after they fell inside poorly maintained and unsafe pit toilets.

According to June 2024 Public Access to Information Act (PAIA) request by the Equal Education (EE), states that there are 4,195 schools with pit toilets in the country, while the Education Facilities Management System (EFMS) report revealed that by July 2014 there were 1,770 schools with pit toilets.

To address this problem, Gwarube launched the app at the department of education’s conference centre in Pretoria, on December 9.

The app was developed by Vodacom and donated to the department, and aims to track and monitor real-time progress in eliminating pit toilets.

Gwarube said one of the challenges that inspired the app's creation was the shortage of reliable data on pit toilets in the country.

“We know that an audit was conducted in 2018, and we had the data that said just under 4,000 pit toilets were in South Africa,” Gwarube said in an interview with local broadcaster, Newzroom Afrika.

She said what concerns her most has been the department may not eradicate the pit toilets, but they may not have real-time data that shows the department where pit toilets were not captured in the audit.

“Even if they (pit toilets) were not present then, they may have become present over time,” Gwarube said.

She said the app is an important tool not just important for the department, but also for teachers, parents, concerned community members and learners to report issues directly to the department.

“It is very easy to use and allows citizens to be able to lock issues with us,” she added.

Gwarube said while the app focuses on pit toilets, she expressed her hope to expand it to address other school related problems such as the delivery of food and textbooks

“Because, what it does is that, the information is directly fed to the Department of Basic Education. On the clicks on a button, I will be able to have a dashboard that shows me where the numbers are going down, where the heat map is, and where the problems are,” Gwarube said.

She said that will provide the department with a quick response to account to different problems that will be endured in different provinces and how to address them.

“The app serves the purpose of putting power back to the community and allowing the department to have access to real-time data that is often locked at and will be checked on a daily basis,” Gwarube told the local broadcaster.

As the March 2025 deadline for eradicating pit toilets approaches, Gwarube expressed her belief that the app will help the department to reach its target of eradicating pit toilets.

“I am working and doing everything in my power to meet the deadline of March 31, 2025, of clearing the backlog that was identified in 2018,” Gwarube said.

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Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube launches app to eradicate pit toilets in public schools