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Damaged flooring, pit bathrooms and no electrical energy are exposing learners and academics to every day well being and security dangers at two colleges close to King William’s City within the Japanese Cape.
At Lukhozi Excessive Faculty in Zihlahleni Village, learners examine in crumbling mud-brick school rooms with damaged home windows, broken flooring and too few bathrooms. About 32km away in Zwelitsha, Nonceba Secondary Faculty has been with out electrical energy since September 2025.
Faculty communities say these circumstances are usually not solely disrupting educating and studying, but in addition affecting well being, security and dignity.
At Lukhozi, the college has solely 5 usable school rooms for about 280 learners. There are two pit bathrooms for boys and two for ladies, whereas academics don’t have any bathrooms of their very own.
Faculty Governing Physique chairperson Mnoneleli Mazibukwana says the college has been in poor situation for years.
“Are you able to think about learning within the chilly, with damaged home windows? This impacts the learners’ and academics’ well being,” he says. “There may be nothing wholesome about respiratory the odor of urine and animal dung each morning.”
Mazibukwana, a former learner on the faculty, says it’s painful to observe the college proceed to deteriorate.
Mazibukwana says classroom flooring have been damaged since 2022, forcing learners and academics to leap over broken sections to maneuver across the room.
“In 2014, two academics obtained injured on their legs due to the damaged ground. They nonetheless bear scars from these accidents,” he says.
He says the college, which was constructed by dad and mom utilizing mud bricks in 1976, was badly broken by heavy rains in 2022. Roofs have been affected, and a few constructions have been swept away.
“The Division of Schooling promised us two prefab school rooms a very long time in the past,” he says. “A contractor began laying the groundwork, however left inside a month. It is just after three years that prefabs have been delivered in January, and development of two courses started final month. They’re presently busy constructing the 2 prefab school rooms.”
The college isn’t correctly fenced and has no cleaners, he says. Learners sweep animal dung from the grounds within the mornings earlier than courses start.
“Generally, throughout classes, a horse will simply seem by the window,” says Mazibukwana. “All this stuff disturb studying. However on the identical time, we count on nice outcomes from them.”
The issue isn’t restricted to 1 faculty. In close by Zwelitsha, residents say Nonceba Secondary Faculty has been with out electrical energy since September 2025.
The advocacy organisation, Equal Schooling says that when the 2026 faculty yr began in January, learners at Nonceba returned to darkish school rooms with damaged doorways, broken ceilings and holes in picket flooring.
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“Most faculties within the township are in such circumstances and have been like that for years,” says Zwelitsha resident Sino Ndindwa.
Ndindwa says Nonceba has been vandalised for the reason that early 2000s and that little has been performed to restore the injury. In some circumstances, he says, dad and mom have donated doorways for school rooms.
“I’ve seen a number of officers go to the college on a number of events, however nothing is finished,” he says.
Norms and requirements
Equal Schooling says circumstances at each colleges are unsafe and don’t meet the federal government’s personal norms and requirements for varsity infrastructure.
“Not solely is the surroundings at Nonceba not conducive for educating and studying, but it surely additionally has nice potential to lower the morale of the learners,” says Ona Matshaya, head of organising for Equal Schooling within the Japanese Cape. “The situation at Lukhozi Excessive Faculty is dire and never conducive to educating and studying.”
The organisation has additionally say that colleges like Lukhozi proceed to attend years for secure infrastructure, even when contractors are finally allotted.
A 2025 South African Human Rights Fee report on sanitation in Japanese Cape colleges warns that unsafe sanitation continues to violate learners’ rights to dignity, security and a wholesome studying surroundings. The report says conventional pit bathrooms pose “substantial dangers to well being, security, and the surroundings”.
Courtroom ruling
In a landmark 2018 judgment, the Bhisho Excessive Courtroom affirmed that the state has an obligation to offer secure and satisfactory faculty infrastructure. The minimal requirements cowl fundamentals akin to secure school rooms, water, sanitation and electrical energy. However years later, faculty communities say some colleges in and round King William’s City nonetheless don’t meet these requirements.
The ruling adopted years of campaigning over unsafe faculty infrastructure, together with colleges constructed with mud, wooden and asbestos, and circumstances the place poor sanitation and unsafe buildings put learners’ well being and security in danger.
Well being-e Information despatched inquiries to the Japanese Cape Division of Schooling greater than three weeks in the past about circumstances at Lukhozi and Nonceba, delays in infrastructure upgrades, and the shortage of electrical energy at Nonceba. No response had been acquired by the point of publication.
Faculty communities say pressing motion is required to revive security and dignity at each colleges. They need the division to make sure that learners and academics are now not anticipated to be taught and work in hazardous circumstances.
Regardless of these circumstances, Lukhozi Excessive Faculty achieved a 97.6% matric go price in 2025, with 144 distinctions from 244 learners, rating among the many top-performing colleges within the Metropolitan East district. – Well being-e Information
