Soweto school still unfinished 20 years since start of construction

While the Gauteng department of education struggles to finish a school it began building 20 years ago, more than 500 pupils from Tholimfundo Primary School in Soweto have been risking their lives learning from inhumane prefab mobile classrooms.   

“Our constitutional rights to teach in a safe environment are being violated, so are the rights of the children,” said a teacher from the school in Protea Glen this week, summarising years of working in difficult conditions.

The school has 14 mobile toilets on its sports ground, which are being used by 508 pupils from grade 4 to grade 7. They received the classrooms in 2020 after they complained about the old mobile classes brought from another school in 2010.  Only 13 brick and mortar classes were finished when the school was built in 2000.

Parents and teachers told Sowetan that at the time the department promised them that a second phase of brick and mortar classrooms would soon be implemented. However, that promise has not been kept for more than two decades and the situation has become unbearable for the teachers.

On Monday, parents marched to the district offices in Pimville to demand new classes and improved basic infrastructure.

“Learners can barely concentrate in those classes. In winter, those classes are extremely cold while in summer they are hot. As an adult you can’t also concentrate. We cannot observe social distancing because there are more learners than the available space.

“Toilets are also a big problem. They are few and we have over 1,000 learners. The toilets on the main blocks are for foundation phase but they have to share with the grades 4 to 7. We are expected to also compete in sporting activities while we have no such facilities,” said the teacher.

Sowetan visited the school this week and found that the mobile classes have not been properly earthed, which puts the lives of those using them at risk of electrocution and lightning. Earth wires are hanging right in front of the desks. Makeshift toilets, which were meant to accompany the mobile classes, cannot be used as sewerage sometimes sips inside.

“Six chemical toilets had been placed at the school but female teachers said these are high risk and two teachers had developed infections after using them. The other toilets, which were built 20 years ago, are broken and have water running out of them. 

“Everything that has happened at this school we’ve told the department about but they have done nothing. Our rights are violated...should anything happen to the children, we are held accountable. We are their parents and it feels like we are failing them because of the conditions we are in,” said another teacher.

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Joseph Mathibedi, chairperson of the school governing body (SGB), said in 2020 a meeting was held with the department with delegation from the premier’s office and the Gauteng infrastructure development.  A plan was unveiled showing that the second phase would cost R19m. The project was supposed to start in July 2020 and completed in October 2021.

“We made the call for new classes long before the pandemic. It is clear to us as parents that they want a child to die first before they can start acting,” Mathibedi said.

Parents have reported this problem to the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and provincial manager Buang Jones confirmed receiving the complaint and said the department responded that it was investigating the matter.

Departmental spokesperson Steve Mabona said the department has been updating the SGB on how it will improve the school in the second phase.

“Other infrastructure processes and plans, as well as various procuring and construction processes, will dictate the completion of phase 2. 

“We urge community members of the community to refrain from undermining the efforts we have made so far to  improve the schooling environment of Tholimfundo; and, instead, protect the current work that has been done. We appeal for patience,” said Mabona.

He did not respond when asked what is causing the delays.

Equal Education has also been alerted of the problem. Its researcher Katherine Sutherland said they found that the classes were crowded, impeding on the ability of teachers to move around and supervise work.

She said overcrowding causes pupils to fall behind, leading to high failure rates and increased dropouts. “Insufficient and dilapidated sanitation infrastructure further infringes on learners’ rights to basic education and a safe school environment,” Sutherland said.

The story was done in collaboration with KayaFM.