By Anita Dangazele
- Hundreds of Eastern Cape children risk their lives daily using dangerous pit toilets at a forgotten farm school.
- The government denies responsibility while teachers and pupils suffer in leaking zinc shack classrooms.
Little children at Vanani Primary School walk in fear every time they need to use the toilet. Their school in Meisies Halt Farms, East London, is one of 400 Eastern Cape schools still using dangerous pit toilets that could kill them.
“We worry every day that we will one day make the news should a child drown in one of these toilets. They are a health hazard. We took a decision to accompany our learners whenever they need to use the toilets,” said a concerned staff member who asked not to be named.
The school started in 1995 when a kind farmer let the community use his land for free. But 30 years later, the children’s learning conditions have only gotten worse.
Most pupils learn in zinc shacks full of holes so big you can see outside. When it rains, water pours onto their books and heads. Only grades 1 and 3 have a proper prefab classroom while the rest, from grades R to 7, study in these leaking shacks.
Teachers say the Eastern Cape education department promised them proper toilets and a new school many years ago. The department even found land in nearby eSantini for the new building.
“But because the land was not fenced off and the department had delayed the construction, people started occupying the land illegally and now they are refusing to move,” said a senior staff member.
The farm owner, identified only as Mr Mike, has tried many times to get answers from the department about the promised new school. But nothing has happened.
Eastern Cape Education Spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima claims the department isn’t responsible because the school is privately owned.
“That school is privately owned; it does not fall under the department. When I say it is privately owned, I mean even the teachers do not belong to us,” he said.
But the teachers disagree, saying they are employed by the province.
Pictured above: The state of Vanani Primary School in Meisies Halt farms in East London.
Image source: Supplied by Zandiswa Msikinya
