During a school sanitation visit at Dimbaza Primary School in the Eastern Cape Province on 6 July 2026, Basic Education Minister, Ms Siviwe Gwarube, announced that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has reached the milestone of achieving the 100% completion of all pit toilet eradication projects identified through the 2018 Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) Initiative audit. She confirmed that all 3,372 schools identified in the 2018 audit have now been provided with safe and appropriate sanitation facilities. 

The announcement confirms the successful completion of the backlog identified through the 2018 SAFE Initiative audit and does not suggest that every pit toilet in the country has been eradicated. Minister Gwarube noted that some schools may have developed sanitation challenges after the original 2018 audit, and that others may have been unintentionally omitted, whilst some communities have retained old pit toilet structures despite receiving new facilities: “More than 3 million learners have benefited from safer sanitation facilities, whilst more than 48,000 teachers now work in healthier and more dignified environments,” she added. 

Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) must now identify and address any remaining sanitation challenges. The Minister emphasised that the completion of the SAFE Initiative must be protected through proper maintenance, community ownership, and provincial oversight, so that the facilities built through this programme remain safe, clean, and functional. 

While celebrating this significant national milestone, Minister Gwarube noted that South Africa continues to face a broader school infrastructure backlog exceeding R120 billion, with many schools still requiring classrooms, libraries, laboratories, fencing, and other essential facilities. She also warned that natural disasters, vandalism, and constrained provincial budgets are placing growing pressure on infrastructure delivery, calling on communities to protect school infrastructure, and reminding South Africans that every classroom, sanitation facility, and school preserved is an investment in the community’s future.

“Today we celebrate a remarkable national achievement of eradicating 100% of the pit toilets identified in the SAFE Initiative backlog. Tomorrow, we continue building, maintaining, and modernising our schools until every learner, in every province, learns in an environment that reflects the value we place on their future. The achievement marks the completion of one of democratic South Africa’s most consequential school infrastructure programmes and honours the memory of children such as Michael Komape, Lumka Mkhethwa and Langalam Viki, whose deaths changed the national conversation on school sanitation forever,” she concluded.