Pretoria - Learners at Filadelfia Secondary School in Soshanguve claim the catering team has been feeding them poor quality food at the hostels.
The learners locked out educators and some of the support staff yesterday morning.
They barred them from going into the school grounds until their pleas for adequate nutrition to be provided to the learners at the school were heeded, alongside other issues.
The learners said that since 2018, they had raised their grievances regarding the poor food quality they were being served, and the lack of adequate security for the learners boarding at the school, to no avail.
Pupil leader Tshepiso Mabusela said the learners had decided to lock the school gates as no one was willing to take action to assist and protect the learners.
Mabusela said the school had promised to change the catering company that was providing the learners with the food, especially after some of them said they became ill from eating it.
She said although they were assured that a new catering team would come in when schools reopened at the end of July, nothing had been done and they were still dished up the same food.
“The management of our school doesn’t care about us and only thinks of themselves, because if they did, they would have addressed these issues a long time ago without us having to go on strike.
“When we have serious problems regarding our safety, it seems no one cares about that.
“We’ve told them repeatedly but they just continue with life as normal even though we’ve had some learners falling sick.”
Lesedi Mathibela, another leader, said issues that were important to learners were not taken into account by the school management.
They had previously struggled with getting hot water supplied to their hostels.
“We honestly feel neglected because if it is not us monitoring the water situation, we are served food that is often not well cooked and of poor quality.”
The learners said they felt angry as management was failing them repeatedly even though they had tried to be understanding and patient.
“Every time we try to raise issues, criminals come into the school easily and threaten us to stop this nonsense and we just don’t feel safe because we don’t even know how they get in.”
Gauteng Department of Education spokesperson Steve Mabona said they were aware of the disruption to schooling.
Mabona said the learners’ allegations that the department was not heeding their needs were unfounded.
According to Mabona, after the protest by learners earlier this year, the department had taken action and new geysers were installed while repairs were being conducted on the existing facilities.
“Unfortunately, our interventions have been futile as vandalism, by the same learners, continues to be a threat.
“We have, however, not received any reports of intimidation of learners by anyone.
“We call on any learner or educator who has any information on the said allegation to bring them forward, so they are expeditiously attended to, in line with the policies of the Dispute Management Unit,” Mabona added.
Pretoria News