Tembisa school sanitation remains poor – DA
The Democratic Alliance accused Gauteng MEC of Education of undelivered promises.
“Despite MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s 2014 promise of R115-million for infrastructure development at 587 schools, schools in Tembisa remain in a state of disarray,” said MPL Mervyn Cirota, the DA’s spokesperson for human settlements.
“A lack of proper facilities poses a great health risk to pupils and educators alike, and the DA calls on both MEC Lesufi and Infrastructure Development MEC Nandi Mayathula Khoza to urgently attend to this crisis.
“The lack of suitable sanitation facilities at Gauteng schools is unacceptable, and the Department of Education cannot continue to ignore this humanitarian disaster,” said Mr Cirota.
Mr Cirota said the schools in Tembisa have been in a state of crisis for more than two years, with more than half the schools seeing up to 100 pupils forced to share one toilet, where one in five toilets are broken as well as a general shortage of soap and toilet paper.
He added that these shortages are nothing new and were brought to the attention of the former Education MEC Barbara Creecy, in 2013.
“At the time a survey showed that 90 percent of Tembisa schools had insufficient infrastructure or sanitation facilities in place. The need for proper sanitation infrastructure in schools cannot be over-emphasised. The DA deplores the ANC government’s lack of sensitivity to the dignity and basic needs of pupils in the province,” he said.
