Publications
Partners
As many as 16 162 pupils from Grade 1 to Grade 12 in some parts of the Eastern Cape have not been able to attend school since the beginning of this month due to a protracted protest over a road.
Community members in Ntlaza near Mthatha were up in arms over promises made to have the 48km stretch of road from Ntlaza, along the R61 to Hluleka Nature Reserve, tarred.
The protest, which began as schools reopened for the final term of the year two weeks ago, saw all government services come to a halt.
Clinics were closed and the road in question was also blockaded with burning tyres and rocks by angry community members.
But most affected were the pupils who were supposed to be preparing for their final examinations in a few weeks time.
The protest brought lessons at 35 schools in the OR Tambo Coastal District to a standstill.
Some of those affected were pupils at the Chief Henry Bokleni Senior Secondary School in Mafini.
When City Press visited the school last week, pupils were wandering about instead of being at school.
Grade 11 pupil Okuhle Vumsindo (18) said the protest had affected their progress. She said even the scholar transport vehicles were not allowed to operate.
“Look, it’s now the second week of the protest and there is still no indication if we will be able to go back to school or even write exams. We are really hurt by this because our future is in jeopardy. We just want to get on with our academic programme,” said Vumsindo, who wants to be a doctor.
Nombuyekezo Mdliki (17), who is in Grade 12, said she was upset because her final exams were only 10 days away.
“Other children in other schools are doing revisions while we are stuck here, not knowing what to do. It is not even easy to study by yourself at home because we are used to doing everything at school,” she said.
Mandisa Ngxuku (18), who is repeating Grade 11, was also concerned about the lost time.
“All I want is to be at school to make sure that I do not repeat this grade again and that I get good marks to realise my dream of becoming an architect.”
On Monday, there was some good news for pupils as the 35 schools finally reopened, DispatchLive reported.
Provincial education spokesperson Malibongwe Matima had previously said their engagements with community leaders had yielded no results, but in a statement on Monday, Education MEC Fundile Gade said a deal had been brokered.
“These engagements between government and the community, demonstrates the commitment of the provincial government in resolving urgent matters that confront our communities.
“We have been able to intervene in ensuring that learners from all schools including the 367 Grade 12 learners from the five affected high schools are back in class. We have called upon the circuit to work with these schools to ensure that all our learners have a clear plan of revision. This will assist the learners to continue to prepare for their final examinations,” Gade said in a statement on Monday.
“The future of our children should be a priority and not be used to get other services delivered,” Gade previously told City Press.
However, Thembikosi Gwaji chairperson of the St Barnabas Hluleka Development Forum, said they resorted to taking this radical action because a promise made before the elections was not fulfilled.
“Before the May general elections we had resolved that all our four wards [15, 17, 19 and 20] would not participate in the elections. That drew the attention of provincial leadership of the ANC. [Tikana] Weziwe, [MEC for transport, safety and liaison] came here and made a commitment that the road would be constructed by last month, but that did not materialise.
“We can see that they are playing games with us. Now everyone is desperately calling us day and night saying that school children are supposed to write exams and that we must stop what we are doing.
“But we know that after the exams they are going to disappear and forget about us, just like they did after the elections,” said Gwaji.
Read: No easy solutions: Learners on farm schools are society’s ‘most vulnerable’
At AmaMpondomise village last Wednesday community members were burning tyres and blocking motorists from passing through while they chanted struggle songs.
Gwaji said Weziwe told them before the elections that her department had been allocated R300 million for the construction of the road.
“But before the end of last month officials from her department came and informed us that Treasury had not yet approved the money. This shocked us because at our meeting with the MEC in May she said Treasury had approved the money,” said Gwaji.
He said they wanted Weziwe to explain to them why the road had not been constructed as per her promises before elections.
Unathi Binqose, Weziwe’s spokesperson, confirmed that a commitment was made for the construction of the road.
“We encountered some delays due to internal processes. We have committed that we would instead start next month due to these delays and that is only a few weeks from now. But the town is burning, which we do not understand,” said Binqose.
 |
| ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
