New Maphiveni Primary School faced with water challenges
VUVULANE – The newly-constructed Maphiveni Primary School is facing serious water shortage.
A visit by the Eswatini News to the school this week found that the teachers and pupils are, for the time being, using water from a tank that is religiously filled by the Tambankulu Estate free of charge to benefit the school.
This new school is the brainchild of Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Thulisile Dladla who not only initiated the project, but ensured that it got off the ground and be operational. Currently, the school is only admitting Grade I pupils and investigations established that around 40 children were enrolled at the school.
The DPM took it upon herself to address the plight of Maphiveni people after they raised concern that the area was in need of a nearby school for their children.
The school is situated just behind the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) camp base at Maphiveni before the junction leading to Tambankulu Estate.
Maphiveni is a community under the Mhlume Constituency and the area’s Indvuna Yenkhundla Nhlanhla Shabangu could not stop singing praises of the DPM’s role in facilitating the building of the school.
“The person we need to be grateful to as the Mhlume Constituency is the DPM, because she worked hard oversee the construction of the Maphiveni Primary School. We truly appreciate the efforts of the DPM because the school has changed the face of Maphiveni. The young ones are excited to attend school everyday,” he said.
conSUltationS
Shabangu, however, lamented the water challenges facing the school, pointing out that they were currently engaged in consultations to find a lasting solution.
“Maphiveni is a community that has always faced water challenges and we are now working hard to mitigate those issues by touching base with the relevant authorities.
“We are very grateful to the Tambankulu Estate for assisting the school by filling up the water tank free of charge,” he said.
Shabangu said the long-term plan for the school was to increase the number of grades, starting with Grade II next year, if all goes according to plan.
“Besides the issue of water shortage at the school, we are engaged in consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders to come up with a budget of expanding the school to accommodate more classes going forward.
“While we appreciate that at least we have Grade I classes, we need to think big and come up with a proper plan to add more grades,” Shabangu said.
The indvuna said for now, they are devising strategies to fulfil their wish of ensuring that the school had classes up to Grade 7 (Standard Five) when the duration of their five-year term in Parliament finally comes to an end.
“There are a lot of other projects we will be embarking on as a constituency and our objective is to ensure that this school has more classes so that Maphiveni residents are not forced to look for alternative schools after Grade I.
“This is a long-term project that will require proper planning and funding,” he said.