Of all the heartbreaking ways a child can die, suffocating in a pit of human waste must be one of the worst. That another child has died this way in South Africa is a painful reminder of the neglect and disdain with which the poor and vulnerable among us are treated. This week, the body of five-year-old Lumka Mkhethwa was found in a pit toilet at her school in the Eastern Cape - a day after she went missing.It's not as though we haven't been here before. In 2014, Michael Komape, also five, died in the same way on his third day at school in Limpopo. Michael's parents are suing the state over his death, and are also seeking a declaratory order stating that pit latrines are a violation of pupils' rights. Equal Education is in court to compel the Department of Basic Education to fix flaws in the rules for school infrastructure. Minister Angie Motshekga published norms in 2013 but deadlines for providing suitable infrastructure for schools - including doing away with pit latrines - were not met. Motshekga acknowledged Lumka's undignified death. "To know that as a sector we have not been able to address these infrastructure issues fast enough, for a number of reasons, breaks my heart," she said. President Cyril Ramaphosa weighed in with an instruction for her to conduct an audit of schools with unsafe structures, especially ablution facilities, and present him with an emergency plan to rectify the challenges. These are fine words and fine sentiments. They come too late for Lumka and Michael. As the minister in charge of basic education, Motshekga carries political responsibility for the dilapidated structures in which these children died. But the responsibility is not hers alone. Every principal who doesn't ensure that his or her pupils are safe, every teacher who can't be bothered to escort a small child to the toilet, every bureaucrat who allocates funds to less pressing needs, is responsible too.And everyone who tolerates the horrible and careless death of someone as precious as a little child needs to ask themselves what kind of society they want. ..