President Cyril Ramaphosa is appalled and saddened at the passing away of five year old Viwe Jali, who fell into a pit toilet at the Luna Primary School in Bizana.
President Ramaphosa has on behalf of the government and the people of South Africa expressed condolences to Viwe’s family and relatives on their devastating loss.
The President has also expressed his grave concern about the safety of facilities in schools, especially when it comes to a lack of decent ablution facilities.
President Ramaphosa has directed Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga to conduct an audit of all learning facilities with unsafe structures, especially unsafe ablution facilities, within a month and to present him with a plan to rectify the challenges, as an emergency interim measure while rolling out proper infrastructure, within three months.
As the President committed in the state of the nation address, the plan to eliminate unsafe ablution facilities will be participatory, with civil society being consulted. To this end, he further welcomes input by civil society organizations who continue to champion the struggle for safe and decent school infrastructure.
The death of Viwe is devastating for her community and the country. The nation still mourns the loss of young Michael Komape under similar tragic circumstances in 2014.
In memory of these young souls, President Ramaphosa has committed government to spare no effort in ensuring that our children can learn in safe and conducive facilities.
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Khusela Diko
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