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Parents from Zwelinzima Primary School in Mthatha are worried about the safety of their children, as they are forced to use an open field when relieving themselves, owing to the flushing toilets that are not working at this school.
The chairperson of the School Governing Body (SGB), Thulani Gana, confirmed that the school was using a borehole for the water used in these toilets, but the machine they were using stopped working.
He said they tried to fix it by using money from their maintenance budget from the Department of Education, but it was not enough because the price was very high.
“We stopped fixing it because we are using this money to fix a lot of things in our school, so we do not have enough money.
“We then built four pit latrine toilets. As I am talking to you now, they are also not in good condition; they put the lives of the learners at risk, and we asked them to stop using them due to their condition,” said Gana.
He added that they are now using an open field, which is also putting their lives in danger.
Gana added these learners might be bitten by snakes and can even be the victims of rape.
“The school does have some water tanks, and we are thinking that it could be a good plan if we can find a donation so that we can hire a plumber, to take water straight from the tanks to these flushing toilets. Even the department can assist us on that, we have tried to tell them about this problem and they kept making promises but they are not helping.”
He revealed that besides the toilet challenge, the roof of the admin block is falling, to the extent that teachers were advised not to use it because it puts their lives at risk.
Another SGB member, Nophelo Komanisi, confirmed that teachers from this school were still using the same staff room even though it put their lives at risk, due to the shortage of classrooms.
“When it is raining the water comes in, but we do not have another alternative because other classrooms have learners. We appeal to the department to help us, because even these toilets stopped working around 2020 if I am not mistaken,” said Komanisi.
Spokesperson for the Department of Education, Mali Mtima, said the priority list had been forwarded to the head infrastructure office in February this year.
“They are busy with it and are trying to contact Public Works for their report, so as to consolidate it as Public Works visited the school and is still attending to the problem. The problem is the borehole, and it’s in the listing for fixing since the financial year has started now,” said Mtima.
He added that the finalisation of this will depend on the availability of the anticipated full report, with financial implications.
