“We feel abandoned by the government. Most of us went to school here using these [same] old toilets, and even our grandchildren are forced to use them,” said a parent from Ntshingeni village near Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape. A teacher at Ntshingeni Senior Primary, said the toilets were built in the 1980s. The zinc toilets are some distance from the households and from the classrooms and in a poor condition. The seats are broken and there is only rough stone and concrete to sit on. “Since a five-year-old learner fell into a school pit toilet in Mbizana in the Eastern Cape, we feel our children are not safe in these toilets,” said Sitetho. The school has 254 learners from grade R to grade 7. Young children use a field as a toilet. Teachers ask to use toilets at neighbouring houses. One teacher, Khanyiso Twala, said in his three years at the school, he has never used its toilets “because of the condition they are in”.