School rubbishes field

It should be a school playground but, instead, half of it is being used as a rubbish dump.

Reporters from The Times yesterday saw at least 70 pupils of Paradise Bend Primary School, in Diepsloot, northern Johannesburg, playing at the edge of the dump, which is a mass of rubble, broken glass, old paint tins, nails and other junk.

The rubbish is barely a metre away from the goalposts on the school sports field.

"This is the norm. The principal is aware of this site and has put me in charge," said a man who refused to give his name.

He said pupils had been warned not to enter the dumping site.

A concerned teacher said: "Children are children and it is impossible to prevent them from entering the site.

"There is no fencing to prevent them entering when nobody is watching.

"Just this week, another teacher saw a pupil chewing on polystyrene he had picked up at the site."

The teacher said he suspected that the companies dumping waste at the property were paying the school.

He said: "I saw one of the teachers in the fund-raising committee being handed R1500 in cash by one of the truck drivers on April 10.

"Dumping takes place daily. We see different trucks coming up and down to dump all kinds of waste and rubble, but we know nothing about it."

The teacher said the school management - the principal, deputy principal and the heads of department - had failed to explain why there was a dumping site on school property or say whether the Gauteng department of education knew about it.

Principal Winston Lerumo said the provincial department was aware of the dumping ground.

But, when contacted by The Times, Gauteng education spokesman Charles Phahlane said the department officials would be sent to the school today to investigate.

"I cannot confirm whether the department knows of any such agreement or not, but we will investigate that fact as well."

City of Johannesburg spokesman Nkosinathi Nkabinde said an environmental health official would investigate .

"The [official] would then have to take corrective measures, which can include the restoring of the property to its natural state, removal of the waste to an approved landfill site and, if deemed necessary, legal action against the offenders and the owner of the property," Nkabinde said.

"Illegal dumping is mostly by contractors or service providers who want to escape landfill costs."