The Gauteng MEC for Education, Mr Panyaza Lesufi accepted a memorandum of demands from Equal Education today. The organisation has marched to the offices of the MEC in Johannesburg to demand proper sanitation at all schools in Gauteng.
Accepting the memorandum MEC Lesufi said: “I want to assure you and everyone present here that I am on your side. My presence here, demonstrates, one point and that is, we can differ in strategy but let’s not forget the objective to fix all our schools”.
The MEC indicated that there were no schools using bucket toilets or pit-latrines in the province. He gave an update of work done to fix toilets within his first 100 days in office. He indicated that upon his arrival over 570 toilets were identified as dysfunctional. An amount of R115 million was set aside to fix toilets in the province. To date, 400 toilets have been fixed and the remaining will be fixed in due course.
“For me, sanitation is dignity. I have sent a strong message to my officials that deadlines are not negotiable,” said the MEC.
Contractors have been deployed to all the sites that have outstanding repair work and have been given strict deadlines to finish.As a permanent solution, the department has developed guidelines to schools (all the users) to assist them in managing and maintaining toilets more effectively. The department is also assisting schools to use their maintenance allocations (as part of their funding allocations) more efficiently and effectively to deal with preventative and day-to-day maintenance.
For more information:
Phumla Sekhonyane
Gauteng Education’s spokesperson
Cell: 071 860 4496
Tel: 011 355 1530
