Eastern Cape mud school ‘falling apart’

Parents at Gobizizwe Senior Primary School in Majola village, Port St Johns, say they have been begging the Eastern Cape department of education to build them a new school for more than 20 years.

Gobizizwe was built by parents in 1984. The school consists of two mud huts, a shack and one prefab class used by teachers as a staff room. The school has 196 pupils with 21 Grade 7s who returned this month.

According to the national minimum norms and standards set by national Education Minister Angie Motshekga in November 2013, all schools built out of mud, wood, zinc and asbestos should be fixed or replaced by 2016. This never happened.

In July 2018, Equal Education scored a major victory when the Bhisho High Court found parts of the government’s norms and standards regulations to be unconstitutional.

The court ordered that classrooms built from mud, asbestos, wood or metal be replaced with buildings that meet the national building regulations.

Parents say each year a construction team is sent to survey the land but nothing has come of it apart from new toilets. Most grades are combined due to the lack of classrooms.

When the school opened for Grade 7s, the 21 pupils were divided and are using the two mud huts. The doors and windows are also broken.

Parents said in 2017 they staged a protest during the local government elections, refusing to vote because the school was used as a voting station.

They said it was only then that four prefab classrooms were delivered but the prefabs had no roofs, windows or doors. The prefabs were destroyed by strong winds a year later.

Gobizizwe also relies on one tank for water. When it runs dry, pupils fetch water from the nearest river about 2km away.

School governing body chair Bhekilanga Ngqele said he was one of the parents who built the school in 1984. According to Ngqele, they started by building two rondavels using sticks and grass.

Ngqele said in 1996 strong winds partially destroyed the two rondavels and two years later the school was hit by flooding.

“This was when we started to ask government to build us a school. While waiting for government, parents decided to continue building the school. We each donated R50 for roofing and to add the shack,” said Ngqele.

Teachers, who asked not to be named, said when the other grades return to school next month, the school would not have enough space to accommodate them.

– GroundUp