Dear Editor
The DA is launching its End School Pit Toilets campaign and petition. Sadly, pit toilets in schools have claimed the lives of far too many children, as it did earlier this year when four-year-old Langalam Viki was tragically found dead in a pit toilet at her school.
Learners and teacher are forced to use unsafe and unhygienic pit toilets at more than 5 000 schools across the country. Learners and teachers deserve a safe and dignified environment that is conducive to learning and teaching.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has launched two initiatives to address the issue of unsafe school infrastructure, yet all the deadlines to address this have been missed and subsequently moved. According to the 2021 National Education Infrastructure Management System (NEIMS) report, 21% of public schools in South Africa still have functional pit toilets. This is unacceptable, and it is time for action to be taken.
The DA calls on the government to prioritize the safety and dignity of learners and take immediate action to eradicate pit toilets in schools. We demand accountability and transparency from the DBE and call for a clear timeline and budget for the eradication of pit toilets in schools.
The DA will be conducting oversights to schools with pit toilets across the country to ensure the ANC government eradicates them once and for all.
We will also approach the courts in an attempt to ensure all pit toilets in schools are eradicated as a matter of urgency and replaced with safe and appropriate sanitation facilities.
We urge concerned citizens to join us in our campaign by signing our petition at https://www.endschoolpittoilets.co.za/ to show their support for the eradication of pit toilets in schools. The safety and well-being of learners should be a top priority, and we will not rest until all schools have safe and sanitary infrastructure.
Regards
Baxolile ‘Bax’ Nodada MP
DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education
Hermopolis
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”
Trash Pocky
When Oscar Pistorius said he wanted to be just like able bodied athletes, who knew he meant OJ Simpson?