Shame of Limpopo’s crumbling schools

Special-needs pupils crammed into shacks

● Crammed like sardines in dingy rooms, 70 boys and 37 girls living in a hostel at Rethuseng Special School, a special needs school in Limpopo, have been bathing in two tiny shacks doubling as bathrooms since the beginning of the year.

Instead of building a new school, which parents have been demanding for years, the provincial department of education delivered four mobile classrooms to a new 5ha site about a kilometre away from the existing school in 2017. The classrooms were never used because no water or sanitation was connected.

Despite this, the department failed to spend R59.1m of its R1bn infrastructure budget in the past financial year. It also had to pay R85.1m of taxpayers’ money in interest to a service provider after failing to pay a bill dating back to 2011.

Indian IT company Sankhyaa Learning Private Ltd supplied 3,000 laptops and 730 desktop computers to schools in the province eight years ago and invoiced the department for R85.5m, which was never paid.

According to the department’s latest annual report, the auditor-general stated that the R85.1m interest paid in January had “resulted in a material financial loss”. The capital amount of R85.5m was also paid in January, following a court order, bringing the total payment to R170.6m.

The unspent R59.1m could have built 91 classrooms or 1,182 toilets; the R85.1m could have built 131 classrooms or 1,702 toilets.

Instead, Rethuseng, in the dusty hamlet of Mamehlabe outside Polokwane, was supplied with eight bucket toilets in August despite the government’s promise to eradicate the unhygienic bucket system.

Now the little the school had is also gone, the corrugated-iron classrooms damaged by a severe storm on November 12. The pupils had to be sent home three weeks short of completing their academic year.

Rethuseng and another school, Sedimothole Secondary in Limpopo’s Mphahlele circuit, where some pupils are studying under trees, desperately need new classrooms.

In the annual report, the department blamed the R59.1m in underspending on the “builders’ holidays” over the festive season.

At the dilapidated hostel at Rethuseng, which also houses pupils with autism, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome, as many as 12 share a room. Their parents — 80% of whom receive disability grants — pay R1,000 a year in fees. This is used to pay the salaries of six governing body staff members.

John Maake, a member of the governing body, said it was heartbreaking, especially for children at a special school, to be taught in “shack classrooms”.

“We have gone to different government departments asking for people to come and help us to build the school, but they are not doing anything to assist,” he said.

Meanwhile, the 88 grade 8 pupils and 72 grade 9 pupils at Sedimothole Secondary are forced to sit on small logs intended for firewood, because of the shortage of furniture.

This year 29 grade 10 pupils used the staff room, which doubles as a classroom and storeroom, for maths lessons.

Matric pupils Lucia Kau, 22, and Boikano Modipane, 19, and 21 others were forced to study under trees during business studies classes between April and June. Forty other matrics who were doing geography were allowed to use a classroom as there were more of them.

Said Kau: “Some topics must be written down on the chalkboard but this can’t be done if you are sitting under the trees.”

Mokganyetsi Petja, deputy chair of the governing body, said it had requested three mobile classrooms in June. “The department never responded. How can a child get good results if he is sitting on a piece of log?”

Limpopo education spokesperson Sam Makondo said it had been on the brink of paying Sankhyaa in 2011 when the department was placed under administration.

“The administrators did not authorise payments for such invoices and Sankhyaa approached the courts.”

When the department was freed from administration in 2016, its negotiations to settle the matter out of court were halted when the Special Investigating Unit became involved.

The department was planning to provide a temporary structure at Rethuseng, he said, but denied that some pupils at Sedimothole were being taught under trees.

“The department gives schools money for maintenance and the school must explain why they are not doing that,” he said.

Petja said the school’s maintenance budget for this year was only R28,800.

“Our floors have huge holes, the roof is leaking, there are no ceilings and the window frames are broken. We also need three new classrooms. How can we sort all of this out with [that amount]?”

How can a child get good results if he is sitting on a piece of log?

Mokganyetsi Petja

Deputy chair of Rethuseng Special School governing body