On 20 January 2014, five-year-old Michael Komape went to the toilet at Mahlodumela Primary School in Chebeng village, Limpopo. He fell through the rotting wooden seat into the pit below and drowned in human waste. He was found hours later after his family searched for him. The image of a child dying in a school pit toilet became the defining symbol of state failure in education infrastructure.
Michael's death should have been the catalyst for immediate, nationwide action. Instead, it became a decade-long battle. The Komape family had to fight the Limpopo Department of Education in court for five years just to receive an acknowledgement of liability. The Constitutional Court ultimately ruled that the state must provide safe sanitation at all schools.
The government set deadlines. It missed them. Three times. The Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) was established to eradicate pit toilets. Progress was made — but far too slowly. As of 2024, 2,130 schools still have pit toilets. Budgets allocated for the eradication programme were in some cases reallocated to other priorities. Michael Komape died a decade ago, and more than two thousand schools still expose children to the same risk that killed him.