‘We have a contract to stay here’
The people living at Hoërskool Die Burger insist they have a contract to live in old classrooms and deny contributing to the depleted state of the school premises.
One of the dwellers, JP van der Merwe, said he was not squatting in the classrooms.
He claimed the classrooms were used by a church which vacated the premises after the former principal retired during the lockdown.
“I have a contract and I have not been fired or retrenched,” he said, adding he has not received a salary since February 2020.
“When the previous principal retired, they just left me here, only for the new management to [try and] evict me,” he said.
Van der Merwe said he was employed by the school in 2018 as a casual worker living at the school, only to receive an eviction notice for not paying rent in November 2020.
“How can I pay rent if they don’t pay my salary,” he said.
He said the school was quick to point fingers at them.
“I caught their own staff stealing and stripping copper cables.”
Van der Merwe said the pupils were also the ones who broke down and vandalised the school building.
“It’s not just the children but also people from outside,” he said. “They smoke dagga, use drugs and have sex on the school field.”
Van der Merwe said the school even accused them of damaging a tree struck by lighting.
School governing body member Agnes Masuku said the people who stayed at the school contributed to the bad state.
“They are very unhygienic, with small children roaming around and they steal electrical cables and other school resources,” she alleged.
Masuku said they could not remove these people until they found them an alternative place to stay.