Matriculants risk lives to cross raging river

Songeziwe Mapukata

Dozens of learners from Mthingwevu village outside Cala in the Eastern Cape cannot wait to write their final matric exam paper this week.

For the past month, these learners have been using an old tree trunk to cross a raging river after the bridge linking them to the only high school that serves their village was washed away.

It’s not unusual for a learner to fall off the makeshift bridge into the river while attempting this daring balancing act that places their life at risk.

On any given day, they arrive at Sikhosana Senior Secondary School wet from the rain, shivering from the cold, hungry and exhausted from walking long distances to school.

And still faced with writing a final exam paper.

Residents in the villages that fall under the Sakhisizwe Local Municipality told Scrolla.Africa that the bridge had been a death trap for five years. Their pleas for better infrastructure had not been heeded by the local municipality.

Phiwe Mbewu said the mobile clinic services that helped the elderly access medical care no longer reach their village.

“Currently, elderly people cannot even go collect their social grant from town when it’s raining and we wonder what they eat.

“Imagine an elderly person in their 60s walking about a 5km distance until they get to the main road.

“The roads are muddy and these people have to carry their grocery plastic bags on their heads, as old as they are,” said Mbewu, who lives in Mthingwevu village.

Taxi owners from the Xalanga Taxi Association of Cala, which serves the villages, told us their vehicles break down because of the bad gravel road.

“School-going children have to walk on tree trunks to get to school in the middle of exams. As taxi drivers we park our taxis on the main road and take turns carrying on our backs sickly elderly people so they can go fetch their medication from town,” said Meva Colani, who owns two taxis.

Navigating these dire straits, a remarkable spirit in the midst of adversity exists; people in this community are helping each other out.

Pictured above: School children queue up to cross the treacherous river

Source: Supplied

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