The Department of Basic Education has re-gazetted regulations to compel all schools in the country to meet minimum energy, sanitation and infrastructure standards—or put them in their active plans—within the next year.but were withdrawn without explanation a week later. They have now been re-gazetted with two key changes:
, have been a controversial and contested set of rules over the last few years, given the department frequently missing its own targets to fix public school infrastructure in the country., when the DBE made commitments to fix infrastructure in public schools through interventions over three years , with a wider commitment to phase in others over ten years .
However, the department missed these deadlines and continually extended them. For example, by 2023—at the end of the ‘phased in’ deadline— it was reported that more than 3,300 of South Africa’s 23,000 public schools still used pit latrines. Provincial departments must also facilitate and coordinate the responsibilities of government agencies and entities that provide infrastructure and related services.