First Limpopo ZOZO school

Tired of empty promises that a new school would be built for them, parents at a Limpopo school demolished an old and hazardous structure and built shacks which are now being used as classrooms.

The parents of more than 400 pupils at Dibeng Primary School in Dibeng village in Ga-Matlala, outside Polokwane, demolished a block of six classrooms and took the building material such as zinc, window panes and planks to erect shacks in order for teaching and learning to continue.

They said the school was build in 1959.

However, the parents have refused an offer by the provincial department of education to move the pupils to an unused Phuti Seopa Secondary School, saying they were not consulted.

Parents told Sowetan that they built the shacks on Monday and that the department has for years been promising to build a new structure but that has not happened.

Community leader Patrick Somo said they decided to build the three-room shack to allow the grades 6 and 7 to continue with learning while they wait for the department to explain why there are delays.

“Parents took a decision to demolish the old blocks and salvage every building material to erect classrooms because the old classes were no longer safe for our children and teachers.

“We know the shack is cold but it is better than not receiving education or studying in a class that is on the verge of collapsing,” he said.

When Sowetan visited the school on Tuesday, Somo and other group of parents were busy cordoning off parts of the blocks of the dilapidated school to prevent pupils from going near them.

Inside the shacks, about 56 grade 6 pupils are crammed in one class with no social distancing.

The same situation repeated itself in grade 7 with 58 pupils.

Other grades are accommodated in mobile classrooms which parents said were delivered in 2019. 

“The department brought six mobile classrooms after we threatened to stay away from voting during the general elections,” he said.

In a letter to the district circuit officials and Dibeng school principal which Sowetan has seen, the department's HOD Onicca Dederen said the department has approved the relocation of pupils, educators and school management team to Phuti Seopa.

“The district identified [an] unused school building... The department deployed a team from its infrastructure unit to conduct condition assessment and they recommended that Dibeng primary should be relocated to Phuti Seopa..." said Dederen.

Somo said there was no consultation regarding the relocation.

School governing body chairperson Charles Cholo said they applied for new blocks to be built in 2011 and nothing has been done. “These three hazardous blocks were built by our grandparents with clay bricks in 1959. The buildings have cracks and the roof is falling apart,” he said.

Cholo said in 2017, the department promised to send a consultant with the aim that the construction will resume in 2018.

“We are not going to relocate our children. We want the department to explain what happened to the money which was going to built our school,” he said.

Department spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene said the matter is being attended to by the office of the HOD.