Pupils must rise at 4am to get to nearest school
SIBUSISO Ndlovu, a Grade 4 pupil, wakes up at 4am each day and takes two buses to get to school in Hambanathi, othongathi, to be there before school starts at 7.15am.
But the bus was at times late and teachers “shouted” at him because they didn’t understand his dilemma.
He is one of the pupils who used to attend La Mercy Primary, that has since been demolished for a maths, science and technology school.
If he misses the public school bus, he has to walk a kilometre to the school.
With scuffed dusty shoes and a torn second-hand backpack, Ndlovu climbs a sand bank from where he can see the institute being developed on the grounds of his former school.
“I get tired at school because I wake up so early and I can’t concentrate. I come back home by 4pm and still have to do homework,” says Ndlovu.
His older sister, also a former pupil of the local public school, travels every morning to a high school in Ndwedwe.
The children’s father, Alfred, Ndlovu, fixes people’s cars in a makeshift veranda outside his shack. He pays R800 a month to transport his children to their schools.
He said: “Schools in Seatides (neighbouring suburb) say they are full, so our kids have to ride in an overcrowded bus with drunk people.
“Every day we worry about whether they’re going to come back safely, but we have no choice because there’s no transport provided by the government, but the same government makes it illegal for parents to take their children out of school.”
Ndlovu said the former education MEC, Senzo Mchunu, met with the community in 2012 and promised that two buses would be provided to transport the pupils to schools in othongathi and this would be free.
However Ndlovu said the promise never materialised.
This was confirmed by another parent, Lihle Khanya.
“It’s not fair for children to wake up as early as 4am when they only need to be in class by 7am,” she said.
Former La Mercy Primary school principal, Krishnie Govender, said the Department of Education had planned to transfer the pupils and teachers to the neighbouring Seatides Combined School.
She left the school before the transfer and was surprised to learn many local pupils had not been accepted at the Seatides school.
Seatides Combined School principal Kola Govender said a relocation of La Mercy Primary school had been planned but he did not know why the project did not go ahead.