The 426 learners and 14 educators at Bungeni Primary School near Makhado, are sitting on a silent time bomb that can explode at any time.

The school, which was built in the early sixties, is on the verge of collapsing and it is no longer fit for human occupation. In 2003, a piece of wood fell from the roof and injured a learner. The roof of the 12 classrooms is leaking and the walls are cracking more on a daily basis. The floor has massive cracks and termites are eating almost everything, from the blackboards, to the brandering in the roof.

The principal, Ms Nancy Mthombeni, says she has done everything to have the problems solved by the Department of Education, but she has only received empty promises. “We are really sitting on a time bomb, which can result in a death at any time. In fact, the school needs to be demolished. We have written countless letters and have sent photos to the Department of Education, but our school has never been considered for renovation.”

Mthombeni said at one time in 2000, representatives from the Department of Education visited the school and promised to do something, but nothing has materialized so far. “The money that we get from the school fees is too little, because we have few kids. Besides that, our school is situated in a rural area and most of the parents are unemployed.”

Mthombeni says teaching becomes a terrible experience when it rains. In other classrooms, there are heaps of termite soil which lie around. “Learners used to take out the termite soil on a daily basis before we commenced with the lessons. We decided not to take the termite soil out because if we take it out, the termites produce more soil the next morning. The termites have also destroyed our blackboards and it is not easy to use damaged teaching aids.”

The spokesperson for the Department of Education in Limpopo, Mr Ndo Mangala, says it is the aim of the department to make sure that the learning environment is beneficial in all the schools. However, he said he would investigate why Bungeni Primary School is not on their database for the 239 schools that need to be renovated or extended in the Vhembe District. “We will send a team to investigate the state of the school and we will make sure the school is on our priority list in our next financial year.”