Angry community members block off Waterval

Community members blocked the entrance to Waterval at the intersection on the road (R578) between Giyani and Elim from as early as 04:00 on Tuesday morning. The road was blocked in an attempt to force the Department of Education (DoE) to address the shortage of proper facilities at the Hlalelani Primary school.

The decision to shut down all services was reached on Monday evening at a mass meeting held in Waterval. Community members joined forces with the school governing body (SGB) and learners to ensure that all forms of most services within the community are not rendered.

A representative of the local SANCO branch, Mr Bernard Maluleka, said that  his organisation was supporting the SGB’s call for a strike. They want the DoE to provide mobile classes and toilets as a temporary measure while they work on renovating or building a new school.

“We have stopped all the services in Waterval, except for essential services such as nurses and the South African Police Service,” said Maluleka. “This is a community issue. No one is going anywhere; all community members are here.”

Most of the community members who commute from Waterval could not travel to their workplaces as there was no transport, due to the shutdown.

Waterval community member Angelina Mashele, who works at a pharmacy in Elim, said that she did not go to work as there was no transport available. “Although I failed to go to work, I am supporting this strike because our kids may end up injured at that school,” she said.

Another community member indicated that the community was acting within its democratic right to strike, since the DoE was not taking their request seriously. “Our children are not safe at that school. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that the department sees how serious we are about keeping our children safe,” said Masingita Baloyi.

Baloyi mentioned that the neighbouring villages and schools were also supporting the strike.

One of the pupils at Hlalelani said she had not been to school since last Monday. “All we want is for the department to provide a proper school, so that we can learn in a safe place,” she said.

Community leaders met with delegates from the DoE on Tuesday afternoon. “The department agreed to provide Hlalelani School with six mobile classes and to appoint a contractor to start working on new toilets before the end of the week,” said the chairperson of the Hlalelani SGB, Andy Munyai. “They also agreed to provide an accurate time frame for the renovation project and (the building of) new classes during the next meeting on Thursday,” he said.

Following the agreement made during the meeting, the shutdown was suspended. It was agreed that the learners of Hlalelani will only go back to school when the mobile classes have been delivered.

The spokesperson for the DoE, Doctor Naledzani Rasila, said that the department had not committed to anything, since they were to meet with the MEC for Education on Wednesday afternoon. “We agreed to meet with the people of Waterval on Thursday after having our own meeting on Wednesday. Only then we can give feedback to the community,” said Rasila. 

He further indicated there was a possibility that mobile classes could be sourced from somewhere else, but that no promises had been made.

News - Date: 12 February 2016

News Correspondent

Correspondent journalists from all over the region supply us with news and sport articles. 

Email: [email protected]