BOIPATONG – According to the chairperson of the SGB at the school, conditions of sewer are not conducive for learning and teaching.
The decision to close the school, comes after several unattended inquiries by the department of education in Sedibeng.
Numerous memorandums of grievances pertaining sewer headache without any response reverts from the department.,
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster, Boniwe Dentse SGB Chairperson said their decision was a strategic plan to lure the district to the school.
“We closed the school so that the district office can come because our sewer problem is worsening. The state the school is in, is not conducive for quality learning and teaching. We’ve raised these issues with the department and their answer was ‘they don’t have a permanent solutions’ for our crisis but they are still coming to that,” she said.
“Sewer in this school is coming from houses close to the school, manholes in the yard and the kitchen we are using is bleeding sewer,” she added.
Dentse said the school was closed in 2017 for the same problem.
“The district came to the school after several letters written to them and they promised to assist. Kids are getting sick, teachers also. We closed the school because we need the department to deal with this problem as a matter of urgency,” she added.
“We are still going to close the school until the situation is resorted. All involved stakeholders should meet with us and help deal with this problem. The school should be helped so that pupils can learn in a conducive environment for learning,” said Dentse.
National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB) Regional Secretary Thabiso Radebe said “Every day, the school gets affected by sewer spillages. One can note that the aged infrastructure needs to be sorted out. We are aware that there can never be a temporary solution, however we are expecting that the municipality will invest in its resources to make sure they replace old pipes running in the school. Part of the long-term solution they must then redirect those line so that they don’t run inside the school premises”.
“Our plea to the local municipality is that it prioritizes fixing the sewerage problem. We cannot afford every day school day disruption; every day is lost for our learners and is not recovered. Emfuleni Local Municipality must find a permanent solution. We know there’s no quick fix solutions,” he said.
Gauteng Education spokesman Steve Mabona said the department is aware of the situation at Lebohang.
“It must be noted that this is a municipality issue and they have started working to clear the sewer spillage. It must be noted that they indicated that the challenge cannot be attended to immediately as it is major”.
“The Municipality was further advised to assist with the cleaning of the sledge in the school yard as soon as the pumping in the school is temporarily stopped. The temporary solution might take 2 weeks to be completed,” he said.
Mabona appealed with the community not to disrupt schooling, and urge them to use available structures to raise issues of concern and not to disrupt schooling.
“Lost contact time is not easily recovered,” he said.
