By Jane Sithole MPL – DA Mpumalanga Spokesperson on Education
Note to Editors: Please see photos attached here and here.
The DA in Mpumalanga has written to the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to assist over 150 learners of a Mpumalanga based special needs school who are forced to sleep in classrooms because the facility does not have a hostel to accommodate them.
Masinakane Special School in the DR J.S Moroka Municipality was founded in 2008 as a boarding school; but since 2017, the 156 learners at the school have been sleeping in four classrooms because authorities have not yet built a hostel for them.
Previously, they were using a dilapidated hostel at the nearby Mbulawa Secondary School, but they had to vacate it in 2017 because it was no longer safe for the learners.
Teachers, parents and the school governing body (SGB) made the temporary decision to move the learners into the classrooms, while the department of education promised to make a plan to build a new hostel.
Sadly, the Department of Education has made no effort in providing alternative housing for these learners even though it had promised to provide mobile classrooms which are also not conducive for learners with special needs.
In the 2019/2020 financial year the department budgeted R30 million to improve or upgrade schools that accommodate learners with special needs in the province, however the department’s quarterly report has revealed that they will only utilise R3 297 630 on five schools of learners with special needs, of which Masinakane is not one of them.
These learners are the most venerable as many of them suffer from multiple differently able challenges ranging from severe mental and/or physical disability as well as epilepsy. These learners deserve an environment where they feel safe and well cared for.
Their dignity and human rights have been undermined as they are expected to use 25-litre buckets as bedpans to relieve themselves during the night as they do not have access to ablution facilities during the night.
The learners’ plight prompted the Democratic Alliance (DA) to write to the SAHRC to intervene and help as a matter of urgency.
The DA has also written to Mpumalanga Education MEC, Bonakele Majuba, asking why out of the R30 million set aside for special needs school infrastructure, only R3.2 million is being utilised and what the department is planning to do with the other R26.8 million?
The DA will continue to fight for the basic human rights and dignity of all South Africans.