Maverick Citizen: Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape education department fails dismally after school fire
A shocking chronology of ineptitude, false promises and lies about the Department of Education’s failure to address the constitutional rights of children to have safe schools and decent bathrooms, unfolded in papers before the Eastern Cape High Court.
For six years, learners at Nombulelo Secondary School in Makhanda had to either relieve themselves on the school stairwell or risk using a bathroom with serious and dangerous fire damage. On Tuesday 12 November, as the school’s governing body (SGB) finally turned to the courts for help, the Department of Education agreed to an order declaring its failure to assist as unconstitutional and compelling it to fix the bathroom within six months.
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) finally assisted the governing body to approach a judge in the Eastern Cape High Court about the matter.
“We believed their promises every time,” the SGB chairperson, Likhaya Msutwana, said in papers before court explaining why they took so long to get to court.
He added that they were also bringing the application in the public interest as the department’s failure to address school sanitation, in general, had an impact on the safety, dignity and health of every learner in the province.
The application for the court order was brought by the school governing body, with its legal team arguing that the Eastern Cape Department of Education has a duty to protect and promote the learners’ constitutional rights to dignity and education and ensure that they have access to safe toilets.
The school has about 900 learners.
The building housing the boys’ bathrooms was badly damaged by fire in 2013 but never fixed. Portions of the roof continue to fall down and the first-floor concrete slab is at risk of imminent collapse. Learners who pass the building are exposed to danger daily as tiles and metal fall off the building.
“The extent to which the school has been blocked, delayed, stonewalled, and pushed from pillar to post these past four years has been not only frustrating but also tragic,” said Nicola Hayes, a former principal at Nombulelo Secondary School who recently left the school. “This is an issue of human dignity and human rights.”
The LRC said it welcomed the judgment and its affirmation of learners’ rights guaranteed by section 28 and 29 of the Constitution.
“This order is granted against the background of ongoing litigation and advocacy on the state of school sanitation in the country. Government officials in charge of providing education should take notice. If there is a failure to provide a safe and stable learning environment, those responsible may be held to account in court,” said the LRC.
Msutwana said the boys’ bathroom was built on two floors, with 10 toilets and one long urinal on each floor. In 2013, the top floor was extensively damaged by a fire, but the bottom floor, though dangerous, still had to be used “out of necessity.” Msutwana added that tiles and guttering frequently fell off the top floor, endangering the safety of learners.
He said the governing body had only received “hollow undertakings and no action” from the department.
He added that now, after six years, the top floor needs urgent repairs to prevent it from collapsing.
According to papers presented to the court, the paper trail to motivate for the bathroom to be fixed started in May 2013 when the then principal Mthuthuzeli Koliti wrote to the department explaining that the top floor of the bathroom had been destroyed in the fire. He asked for the urgent intervention of the department to avoid an unhygienic situation as this left the boys – there were more than 500 at the time – with only 10 toilets and one urinal.
In 2015 the school was listed in a departmental memorandum as a “disaster school” and orders were given that it be fixed in that financial year. Nothing happened.
For the next four years the new principal, Nicola Hayes, made many requests for the block to be repaired or rebuilt – but the department did nothing.
In April 2016 the department said repairs were hamstrung by the absence of structural engineers but added that as soon as one was available, “work will start”.
It did not. Shortly afterwards, former premier Phumulo Masualle came to visit. Officials from his office “promised to follow up on repairs to the toilets”.
A structural engineer arrived at the end of April to assess the building and stated that he was “appalled.” He said he would push for it to be rebuilt, but nothing happened.
In June 2016 Hayes again asked for repairs to the bathroom, and she was promised that work would start within a month.
Four months later nothing had been done. An urgent memorandum was sent to the department’s provincial head office. This resulted in the school being removed from the list of disaster schools and instead being earmarked for the replacement of its fence.
But officials were still promising that they were working on getting the toilet blocks fixed. For the next 12 months, Hayes was told the project was at “procurement stage.”
Then officials started ignoring her emails. For three months all her communication with the department regarding the issue was ignored.
In January 2018 the Portfolio Committee for Education was told about the toilets and came to visit. They promised to have it fixed. Nothing was done.
According to papers before the court, children were relieving themselves under the school’s stairwell to avoid the dangerous bathroom.
The Makhanda High Court has now ordered the department to repair the toilet within six months. According to the court order, the department must file an affidavit within a month setting out its plans, appoint a service provider in three months and have the project completed in six months’ time.
The order further stated that the department must ensure that there are enough toilets available for the school within this period. It must also report back on its progress every 60 days. LRC attorney Cameron McConnachie said the department had not opposed their application for a court order.
Eastern Cape Department of Education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima did not respond to a request for comment. MC