Johannesburg - A study camp for Joburg matrics went horribly wrong when they were fed cockroach-infested meals and forced to sleep packed like sardines in tiny, unhygienic rooms.
So bad were the conditions that some pupils called their parents to come and fetch them.
These shocking circumstances were relayed by Bernaley Rosenberg, a pupil of Willow Crescent Secondary School in Eldorado Park, who said they had been taken to Cullinan despite their parents being told they were camping in the Magaliesberg.
On Tuesday morning the traumatised teenager told The Star her parents travelled all the way from the south of Joburg to Cullinan, which is east of Pretoria, to fetch her.
“There was not enough accommodation for all of us, so they forced about 20 of us to sleep in a small first-aid room. The place was so dirty and unhygienic that some of us found cockroaches in our food. We were lucky if we got a chance to drink water,” said Rosenberg.
Despite pleading with their teachers and officials at the camp, their complaints fell on deaf ears.
So the pupils took matters into their own hands and called their parents for help.
Rosenberg’s parents brought a convoy of minibus taxis with them, so they could pick up other pupils.
Rosenberg said the week-long camp was meant to be an intensive study camp which was supposed to prepare them for the upcoming matric finals.
When they arrived at the school to be taken to the camp on Sunday, they realised there were three other schools joining them.
However, no arrangements had been made for extra transport to accommodate the additional pupils so matriculants from all four schools had to squeeze into two buses.
They were not allowed to take cellphones or other technological devices with them so the pupils were unable to report their whereabouts to their parents.
Rosenberg was able to call her parents from another parent’s phone – some parents had gone with the children to act as chaperones.
She said once they arrived at the camp, they discovered that the officials had overbooked and they were unable to accommodate pupils from all four schools.
In a bid to fit everyone in, the camp managers resorted to desperate measures.
She said although some of the matriculants from Willow Crescent Secondary School decided to stay behind until the camp finished on Friday, most of the pupils went home with her.
Gauteng Education Department spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane told The Star that the only complaint they had received was from one pupil but it was on religious grounds as a halaal diet hadn’t been catered for.
However, Sekhonyane said the department was looking into the matter and Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi was sending a team to inspect all the campsites in the province.
@Karishma_Dipa
The Star