Vuwani – After two weeks of no classes, some 60 000 pupils in volatile Vuwani in Limpopo were on Monday made to wait yet again for their education to resume.
“We heard that schools will resume today, only to find [out] that there is no schooling taking place,” said Grade 11 pupil Phathutshedzo Mukwevho.
“I am worried that we are missing, we have already [missed] a lot of time of schooling.”
Mukwevho is enrolled at Ha-Mashau Village’s Vhafamadi Secondary School, one of the targets of the recent violent unrest in the area.
The unrest began after the Limpopo High Court at the end of April ruled in favour of the Municipal Demarcation Board against Vuwani residents. The latter were fighting to have their area reinstated under the Makhado Municipality and not incorporated into the Malamulele Municipality.
Since, at least 20 schools have been burned down allegedly by protesting residents, with a further four left damaged by the arsonists’ attacks. Schooling has not been able to continue.
However, following a week of government-led interventions in the area, it was hoped that schools would resume with the year’s curriculum.
But when Mukwevho and his friends, Mpho Mulaudzi and Tshililo Dzimbane, arrived early on Monday morning – hoping to see their classmates – they were left disappointed when they found their classroom in ashes.
“I have heard that the school was burnt but I did not know how,” said Dzimbane, “We don’t have a classroom [and] our chairs and tables [are] no more.”
Other schools in the area have also been affected.
At Maligana Secondary, pupils in their final year were seen cleaning up the rubble left behind by the arson attacks.
At another, Vhudzani Secondary School, Grade 9 learner Makungo Makeke said she was disappointed as she felt she and her classmates would not be able to recover lost time.
Many of the area’s teachers have also reportedly turned to the local circuit office, saying they feared for their safety.
In addition to a two-week delay in their education, some pupils will have to deal with their school records having been lost in the arson attacks.
The province’s MEC for Education Ishmael Kgetjepe said that principals will be expected to reconstruct the lost data.
He added that the department would soon provide pupils with 73 mobile classrooms which would be utilised while the department attempted to rebuild schools.
Kgetjepe blamed intimidation for the delay: “We have been receiving reports of intimidation [aimed at] management and learners to ensure that they don’t go to school.”
However, said Kgetjepe, a catch-up programme would be designed and implemented once school resumed.
Meanwhile, local leader Chief Mmbangiseni Masia – who said village leadership had resolved schools should resume – said the community would soon be appealing the High Court’s ruling.
African News Agency