Primary school on brink of collapse
KwaFaku’s teachers and pupils’ health badly affected
PARENTS of pupils at the KwaFaku primary school in Lower Crossroads prevented their children from going to school yesterday over concerns that the building is unsafe, and the experimental materials used in the construction of it was making their children sick.
They also claim there is no running water, no flushing toilets, poor ventilation, leaks in the roof and a large amount of dust and dangerous particles from the styrofoam used to insulate some of the walls.
The parents say the building could collapse at any time, and their cries for help from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) have fallen on deaf ears.
Department spokesperson Millicent Merton said the department was aware of the state of the building, and the school was due for an upgrade.
“Construction is expected to start at the beginning of 2019,” said Merton.
“School infrastructure is a priority for the Western Cape government as we seek to keep up with the growing demand for schooling in the province, as well as replace buildings that were built with inappropriate materials. However, infrastructure delivery is subject to available budget.”
While budgetary constraints could easily be blamed, the department underspent its renovation budget last year.
Advocacy group Equal Education last year slammed the department for underspending by about R830 million on the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (Asidi), which was established to replace schools built from inappropriate materials and to provide basic services to schools that previously had none.
Community leader Albert Dlala said the residents were tired of waiting. “What is happening to the school is a disaster, therefore we cannot wait for the building to collapse on our children and that is why we protested. The school is built of something like foam, which might collapse at any time.
“We have been complaining to the Department of Education about the school conditions, but nothing has been done. Last year we were promised that the school would be demolished and rebuilt with proper materials – none of that has happened.”
“We made a follow-up and we were promised again that the school will be built by January; until today the school has not
WE WERE PROMISED THE SCHOOL WOULD BE DEMOLISHED AND REBUILT WITH PROPER MATERIALS
because as a community we have seen terrible accidents where buildings collapsed on people and many people lost their lives, so as parents we won’t allow that to happen to our children.”
Maureen Figlan, who has been a principal at the school for 17 years, said she had raised the issue of improper building materials with the department from the start.
“The school was an experiment, it was made of something like a foam, not a proper material. We reported the defects to the Department of Education and Metro South Education District in Mitchells Plain.
“The school had a bucket system, hot conditions and pupils had to wet their shirts to cool themselves, there was dust and leaking roofs.
“I was really disappointed when the director couldn’t come and listen to the community’s concerns. Many teachers and pupils are now suffering from asthma, TB and bleeding noses after they came to the school, because there is so much dust.”
Anelisa Sithuli, 22, who attended the school until 2008, said when she started classes she became sick because the classrooms were very cold and there was no clean water.
Nosiphiwo Konase, 34, said her 10-yearold was suffering from a bleeding nose and sinus problems.
Vuyiswa Nkaphe, 46, said her Grade 1 child was diagnosed with TB.