Despite the Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Leader, John Steenhuisen, visiting the family of the 4-year-old girl who died after falling into a school pit-latrine at a school in Vaalbank near Dordrecht in the Eastern Cape (EC), he will also lead a delegation of DA public representatives to conduct an oversight visit to the school on Tuesday.
Langalam Viki's body was found in a pit toilet at school after her mother raised the alarm when she failed to return home from school.
During his oversight, Steenhuisen announced the party’s legal action to eradicate pit toilets across South Africa.
The DA said Viki's death was at the hands of an "uncaring" ANC government that could have been prevented if the Department of Education had not wasted time in eradicating all pit toilets from schools.
"This Human Rights Day, the DA will remind the ANC national government that proper sanitation is a fundamental human right that the government must ensure all South Africans have access to," it said.
Meanwhile, Section27, in partnership with the Centre for Child Law (CCL), will launch an online tool, the Michael Komape Sanitation Progress Monitor, to track progress made by the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) to eliminate unsafe and undignified sanitation at public schools throughout the Limpopo province and install safe and decent sanitation facilities.
A five-year-old, Michael Komape who was a learner at a primary School in Chebeng Village, outside Polokwane when he fell into a pit toilet at school on January 20, 2014 and drowned.
The progress monitor will be launched at the Human Rights Festival held at the Constitution Hill on March 24. As part of the festival, the organisation said it will also host an exhibition to commemorate the life of Komape from March 25 to March 26.
According to Section27, the Sanitation Progress Monitor will allow the public, such as learners, parents, school communities, media, and other stakeholders, to track progress and hold the LDoE accountable for meeting their deadlines.
"It also shows the remaining pit toilets in the province and the number of learners affected. Overall, the tool will monitor the LDoE’s commitment to adhere to the court order to eradicate pit toilets and provide safe sanitation facilities," it said.
kamogelo.moichela@inl.co.za
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