Sanitation infrastructure at school stinks
Parents of children in the Loretto Combined School, barely 2km outside Tzaneen, are unhappy about the conditions of the school's sanitation infrastructure.
The 260 children are seperated into two grades per classroom, which makes up a total of five classrooms. The ablution facilities of the school consist of only two outside toilets.
In the past, these toilets were reserved for teachers, while the children had their own facilities to use.
The children’s toilets however, are in such a bad state of repair, they had to be cordoned off for safety’s sake and children now have to make use of the two teachers’ toilets outside.
There are too many children in the school to make the use of the teachers’ toilets a viable option, so the kids end up relieving themselves in the bushes surrounding the school.
This brings about serious fears regarding their hygiene and safety.
Worried and angry parents contacted the circuit manager of the Mopani district, a ms Thage, on 2 September but she claimed she was too busy to go to the school. After receiving this response, one of the worried parents contacted the D.A.
Eventually, Kesias Malatji, a member of the school’s parent advisory comittee contacted Pierre Cronje, the D.A.councelor for the Mopani district, who went to the school to investigate the situation. He was met by a crowd of over 60 concerned parents. His photographs tell a sad story of neglect.
The original children’s toilets are unventilated pit toilets under a sagging concrete roof. Large cracks in the wall are visible and the state of the roof and the toilets can be seen clearly on the pictures.
The working teachers’ toilets run off into a broken down septic tank. The classroom door’s threshold is eroded to the point where two ragged pieces of cement are all that is left, with two pieces of lumber the only things keeping the roof up. According to Cronje, the school’s principal, M.A. Mashao, has tried everything from pleading with the Department of Education, writing letters (which are in the Herald’s posession), through to contacting the national media.
Their options are now running out. Herald phoned Mashao but she said she wasn’t allowed to talk to the media. Next, attempts were made to make contact with Thage, but to no avail.
