Shameful derelict of a school
WHILE officials are embroiled in debate over who has the right to build on a stretch of land near the East London airport, the 400 pupils attending a temporary school in the area are forced to use a single pit toilet. The school, located 2km from the East London airport, is built from corrugated iron, with an additional two classrooms erected by members of the community, that are made out of wood. Another two classrooms – also temporary structures – were donated by the department in 2014.
According to the department of education, until the land dispute in the area is resolved, the school building will remain a temporary structure.
However, senior education officials will on Monday meet the principal of the school to see if a solution can be reached on the pit toilet problem..
Although registered as a public school, Bhongweni Primary is located on disputed land – Fort Grey’s Bhongweni area – where the department of Public Works has erected signs warning people to not build houses.
Houses worth millions of rands have been illegally built there.
The school also has no access to electricity, making the structures unbearably cold in winter, and when it rains, the floors are wet from leaky roofs.
There is no piped water which forces pupils to take turns fetching and carryingbuckets of water for drinking and washing hands.
The Saturday Dispatch visited the school on Wednesday after the DA, as part of its oversight role, went on a tour of several schools across East London.
SGB chairman Marere Fani said: “There is no one that we have not approached to ask for assistance from Eskom, to Buffalo City Metro, the Department of Education, and even external donors.” This had been done to no avail.
Fani said what was most worrisome was that the school used to receive help from a US aid agency, but this donor has since cut ties because the community has yet to source a title deed for the land on which the school has been built.
The DA’s Jane Cowey, who visited the school a week ago, said she had written to Education MEC Mandla Makupula, requesting his urgent intervention.
Education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said the department was well aware of the plight of the Bhongweni community, however there was a lot of inter-departmental consultation over the title deeds which have to be addressed before the department can commit to infrastructure upgrades at the school.
Pulumani said the department had, as early as 2015, requested the assistance of the Public Works department to relocate and formalise the site at Bhongweni in order to comply with environmental and planning prescripts before it could provide infrastructure.
“This is however hampered by the issue of the eviction process of unauthorised land occupation,” said Pulumani.