No schooling at Waterval in spite of “Lotto toilets”

Grade 12 learners at Waterval High could not resume with classes on Monday because the toilet facilities were deemed inadequate. Instead, learners had to report to the nearby Hlalelani Primary School on Wednesday.

Waterval was one of the schools that were supposed to benefit from a R10 million lotteries grant to build toilets in rural areas.

Waterval’s School Governing Body (SGB) assessed the situation earlier this week and decided not to open the school, because the ablution facilities may be a health risk to the learners.

“The school’s infrastructure, especially the toilets, is not in a good state. Some toilets are not flushing, while others have broken handles. So, the SGBs of the primary and secondary schools agreed that Grade 12 learners should occupy six classrooms at the primary school as we work on the secondary school’s toilets,” said Robertson Ngobeni, one of Waterval’s SGB members.

Waterval High has 120 Grade 12 learners, whereas Hlalelani has 78 Grade 7 learners. The primary school allocated 14 flushing toilets to be used by the Grade 12 learners.

The fact that Waterval High does not have proper ablution facilities is somewhat ironic, as the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) spent R10 million last year to upgrade toilets at eight Limpopo schools. Waterval High was identified as one of the schools that were to benefit from the pro-active funding project, mainly aimed at replacing pit toilets with safer Enviroloo toilets.

On 12 April last year, protest action erupted at Waterval, with learners and parents complaining about the dilapidated state of the school buildings and toilets. Reporters started asking questions about what had happened to the newly-refurbished ablution blocks, sponsored by the NLC. What then emerged was that the Soshanguve-based NPC that had received the R10 million to handle the project had only done minor refurbishments at the school.

The “handing-over” function that was scheduled for 25 April had to be cancelled by the NLC and its representatives admitted that the work done was not up to standard. The NLC promised that the matter would be addressed.

More than a year later, very little seems to have been done to complete the project or recover some of the money paid over to the NLC beneficiary. Ngobeni said that the toilets were much the same as when the NLC delegation visited last year. He added that a team of forensic auditors from the NLC had visited the school last Tuesday (2nd) to find out more about the disastrous NLC project.

The SGB assured parents and learners this week that plans were afoot to upgrade the ablution facilities and create a safe teaching environment.

“We have received R363 787,90 from the Department of Education’s Norms and Standard allocation. There is no time to waste now. We are now busy collecting quotations to find out which is cheaper - to build new toilets or renovate the existing ones. We expect work to start this Friday, 12 June,” said Ngobeni.

Ngobeni said that of the money allocated, roughly R212 000 was earmarked for maintenance of the school’s infrastructure. They were confident that the toilets would be ready before the rest of the school’s learners returned.

(Read the GroundUp report where Zibsifusion is used as a case study to indicate how lottery money do not end up where it is supposed to utilized by clicking here.)

Date:13 June 2020

By: Bernard Chiguvare

Bernard Chiguvare is a Zimbabwean-born journalist. He writes mainly for the online publication, Groundup.

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