Page 8 - Eastern Cape Education

SAFE kickstarted in the Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape has a very high number of schools with pit latrines and other inappropriate and unsafe structures. The eradication of pit latrines has been placed at the forefront of the schools’ infrastructure agenda and has led to the championing of the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) initiative by the President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa in August 2018.
In his keynote address at the launch of SAFE in Pretoria the President said that the initiative was a response to “an urgent human need”.
The SAFE initiative seeks to provide innovative, safe ablution facilities in rural and township schools through public-private partnerships. “We are here to ask you to be
part of a bold social initiative to ensure that every school in the country has safe and appropriate sanitation facilities,” said the President.
An audit has found that the Eastern Cape has 1 598 unsafe; unsuitable sanitation structures. However, 578 of these have been earmarked for closure.
262 schools have been identi ed to receive new sanitation facilities in the 2019/20 Financial Year. These projects will be implemented by various partners (Implementing Agents) - the table below outlines the number of SAFE projects in ten education districts and provides an indication of the IA responsible for the project.
Allocation per Implementing Agent and District
District
Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)
Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA)
The Mvula Trust (TMT)
National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT)
Grand Total
Alfred Nzo East
13
13
Alfred Nzo West
45
45
Amathole East
36
36
Amathole West
17
17
Buffalo City
16
16
Chris Hani East
36
2
38
Chris Hani West
22
22
Joe Gqabi
12
12
OR Tambo Coastal
30
30
OR Tambo Inland
33
33
Grand Total
58
58
91
55
262
8 | December 2019 | Sakh’isidima news