Meet the Eastern Cape schools the province desperately tries to forget
Despite pleas for upgrades, the government merely makes promises
Themba Msimanga is trapped in a Kafka-esque nightmare. He is remarkably calm and exhibits none of the homicidal tendencies many of us might harbour after witnessing five years of determined inaction by dozens of government employees. Msimanga has been bounced from Development Bank of Southern Africa pillar to department of education post — a cruel punishment for the sin of desperately wanting to repair the school his two children attend. He is not asking for anything exotic like a science laboratory or a library. All he wants is a school that is safe and reasonably hygienic for his children and their 1,123 fellow pupils. In 2017, a pupil fell through rotting floorboards. He escaped serious injury but others aren’t always as lucky. Schornville Primary School is about 10 minutes outside King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape. When it was built — out of plywood and asbestos — in 1970 it was meant to be a temporary structure until a school built with bricks was completed. That was the ...
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