Hon Chair, the question relates to water and sanitation backlogs in our schools. We currently have, out of our 30 000 schools, 1 307 that do not have water; and 536 that do not have water and sanitation. The provincial departments, through their school-building programmes, are dealing with this. Because of the emergency and serious nature of this programme, we have been able to get R66 million from the European Union, EU, to deal with that.
Last Friday I signed a partnership with the Coca-Cola Foundation-led consortium, which will also be assisting us with water and sanitation in 100 of these schools. We are working with the Departments of Water Affairs and of Energy to implement and manage the provision of water, sanitation and electricity in our schools. This is in line with the government's key objectives of delivering services to the public and schools of the poor.
Our department has also put in place the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative, and again this programme is focusing mainly on water, sanitation and electricity. We do hope that by 2014 we would have provided water and sanitation to all our schools in the country. Thank you.
Hon Chairperson, whilst appreciating the efforts being made to involve the private sector in this particular programme, may the Minister indicate to this House what is meant by proper sanitation in schools. Does it, for instance, mean pit latrines, and what is the overall estimated cost of the water and sanitation backlog? Thanks.
Chair, in terms of the first statement about what proper sanitation is: It varies, that is why the figures even say 1 300 don't have water and sanitation, but 500 have sanitation. It means we are using other methods of sanitation.
Sanitation is not only waterborne sanitation. We have pit latrines and all other forms of sanitation in schools; and those we count as sanitation, as long as they are functional. They serve the purpose and are hygienic, so it's different forms of sanitation.
In terms of how much it's going to cost us to address the needs of this 130 000 schools, we've worked out the costs for just those 1 000 schools for water and sanitation and it's going to cost us more than R4 billion. That's the money we are looking for just to deal with water and sanitation.
The major problem is that these schools are in areas where there are no bulk services. It means we are bringing water to areas where there's no water in the whole community. That is why even providing them is much more expensive than you'll do in an area where there are bulk services provided by the municipality. But the latest cost was just in excess of R4 billion to deal with these 1 000 schools.
Hon Chairperson, 2014 was put forward as the year when all the sanitation problems would have been done away with. Firstly, does the Minister think that by that date we would have done away with all those backlogs?
Secondly, connected to that, does the Minister agree that our system of education is characterised by this very serious element of wastefulness? Instead of prioritising sanitation and the elimination of other backlogs, your provincial counterparts would embark on wasteful activities, for instance, imbizos and sod-turning ceremonies, which end up with only the sods being turned but no infrastructure would be put up. Thank you.
Hon Chair, our schools are indeed characterised by major inequalities. You have some that have violins and others that don't even have whistles. That is the character of what we have inherited and it is one of the major challenges we have.
On whether we would reach the 2014 target, we are working very hard, that's why we've worked out the costs. We are saying, in terms of the accelerated infrastructure programme, that sanitation, water, electricity and fencing are our priorities. Any other money that we asked to be identified for us in the fiscus is going to address those priorities. Even in terms of provincial monies, we are saying to them that they have to prioritise those four areas. I am quite confident that we will indeed reach that target.
As part of our turnaround strategy, also, we are looking at wasteful expenditure, where we indeed often have to cut off in different areas. We are looking at different ways of saving to make sure that indeed we can make savings, such as, how we deliver books - that there are too many people in between. In making sure that we can cut off, we are trying to deal directly with publishers.
Provinces are refused permission to build very expensive schools for R100 million when they still have basic things that are not there in their provinces. That is part of what we are trying to work on with provinces to focus on priorities - such as water, sanitation and fencing - that are core and have to be done. So we are mindful of that and are trying to work very closely with provinces to rationalise and make sure that we can save funding for these priorities. Thank you.
First of all, hon Minister, I hope that your provincial departments will assist you to reach that target date of 2014, because you will remember that many schools in the Eastern Cape are still with us. Despite coming up with different, tougher dates, mud schools are not yet totally eradicated in the Eastern Cape.
My follow up question is this: Given the large-scale theft of metal and electrical fixtures as well as plumbing material from schools, has the Minister put in place any additional security measures at schools? This would be to protect the entire new infrastructure that is being rolled out; to ensure that it remains in place and is not simply stolen within the first few months after installation. I thank you.
Chair, we have designed the accelerated infrastructure programme in such a way that we are not dependent on provinces.
We identify resources nationally and work with provinces and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, DBSA, to help us with project management. In this way we get the private sector to deliver directly to schools in the already identified priority areas.
The 2014 commitment is not dependent on provinces as such, but on our abilities with partners. As I said, we have the Coca-Cola fund, the Mvula Trust and all those people coming with to assist us to implement. We are not so dependent on the provinces.
In terms of what you correctly identify as stealing, I think stealing in schools is a major problem in communities, especially in poor communities. One of the strategies we are employing is to really work with communities to create a sense of ownership and to get them to build the schools so that they can protect them.
However, it's a major problem - not only with new infrastructure. We lose desks when schools are closed. It's just a crisis as to what is going to happen to education facilities, so it is a matter of great concern.
We are really looking at different ways of mobilising communities to support schools, because we are aware that where communities take ownership, they also protect resources which are in their communities. We, therefore, have a whole major exercise of community mobilisation to protect the assets that are there in the communities. It's a major problem in the sector. Thank you.
Position regarding departmental funding for electrification of Thokoza hostels
213. Mr K P Sithole (IFP) asked the Minister of Human Settlements:
Whether his department has provided any funding for electrification of the Thokoza hostels; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?