Durban - Hundreds of students at the Phindangene Adult Education Centre in Durban - some of whom are preparing for Grade 12 exams - are using the light from cellphones and candles to study after the electricity was cut off two months ago.
An official of the school, in Lamontville, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the problem arose on August 8 when the municipality came to cut the services, including water, because the bills had not been paid.
“When I asked the (education) department - they pay the bills - they played hide and seek. They said I must go to Pietermaritzburg and the guys at Pietermaritzburg said I must go to Truro House. When I got there they said I must go back to Pietermaritzburg because that is where the head offices are.”
The provincial head office of the KZN Department of Education is in Pietermaritzburg and its regional office is at Truro House in Durban.
The official said pupils, who attend from 4pm to 8pm, were suffering. “I do not know how they are going to study. Some of them are writing Abet (Adult Basic Education and Training) exams in October. How can you teach someone in darkness?”
One pupil, Thandi Ngcobo, 39, said: “The department of education does not say why they cut off electricity. We have to use cellphones and candlelight to study. The department is treating us like animals.”
Ngcobo does volunteer work at Umbilo police station’s victim support centre, and plans to one day study towards a medical degree so that she can work with rape victims.
She said she was shocked at the situation at the centre. “I want to ensure that students who come after me get a good education - where there are lights.”
The KZN spokesman of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA, Anthony Pierce, said the students were being done a disservice. He said the adults who went to the school were making sacrifices so they could get an education. “If nothing is done about it in the short term the community, along with unions, need to take action.”
The right to education was enshrined in the Constitution, Pierce said. “We raised the Constitution high but are failing to implement it.”
Department spokesman, Muzi Mahlambi, said they were investigating why the adult education centre had no electricity as a primary school, which shares the same premises, had no problems.
Additional reporting by Sihle Mlambo
Daily News