At least 177 children with special needs in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape have been forced to stay home since November due to the poor state of their school.
Several angry Mthatha parents spoke to TimesLIVE Premium about their children's plight but asked not to be identified, fearing their children would be victimised.
Parents complained about broken toilets, electricity and water issues, a lack of scholar transport and unsupervised disabled children seemingly being left to fend for themselves at the school.
“Our school, Ikhwezi Lokusa, has been unfit to house children for many years. The department of education has let our children down,” said one mother.
Provincial education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said R11.3m was allocated last year to address problems at the school.
But parents said there was not much evidence of the money being spent.
“Last year the school told us the children will write their exams earlier so they can be out of the school by mid-November so contractors could gain access to start fixing the school.
“We were told the school would be ready for the children when the new school year started in January. The contractors were not paid in time, so building work was delayed. When January came the school was not ready.
“We have now been told that the children must go to Vukuzenzele Special School in Bizana,” the mother said.
She is angry. “Bizana is three hours away. Most of us do not have transport, so the department said they will organise a bus once a month so we can visit our children.”
What kind of a country is this? With so much discrimination. We demand answers from the department of education
— Mother
She did not know what was delaying these plans by the department of education.
“We want our children to have education like others. We feel like the department is not transparent about what is really happening. We were promised that our children would be going to Bizana in the first week of February, then they postponed it to February 18. They then again postponed it for another time, for which we were not given an actual date.”
Vukuzenzele Special School, however, would have a problem housing pupils from Ikhwezi. “They don't have space for our children, so they have to convert TV rooms to bedrooms. This has not been done yet and now we are almost in March,” she said.
“This matter is draining us emotionally because the department of education in the Eastern Cape has failed our children with disabilities,” the mother said.
She said parents were nearing the end of their tether.
“We are devastated and worried about our children’s future. We as parents are even ready to take the department of education to court for failing our children’s education. What kind of a country is this? With so much discrimination. We demand answers from the department of education.”
She said the children were longing to return to school.
“The children are not happy at all. They are always asking, 'When are we going to school? Are we going to stay at home this year?' To ease their minds they watch TV or ask for books so that they can practise the school work. It's not easy for them and it is depressing to us as parents.”
Provincial education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima denied the claim about parents being told the school would be ready by January.
“The deadline supplied by the construction company on the project is the end of May. That is why we must move the affected learners to the school in Bizana,” Mtima said on Saturday.
“The payment issues were not a department fault. It was an internal issue in the construction company. This was resolved and the builders are back at work.”
Mtima said “all relevant stakeholders” had to be consulted before work could start on the Bizana TV rooms.
“We are talking to teachers, unions, parents and other relevant parties. Because these are children with special needs, we have to move their teachers and carers with them.
“Once everybody is in agreement, the work in Bizana will start. Once it has started, we expect to be ready after one week.”
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