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ActionSA has, this morning, written to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to lodge a complaint about the closure of a school on KwaZulu-Natal’s Southcoast that has been closed since 24 April 2023 which has seen the violation of the human rights of 413 school learners owing to uninhabitable infrastructural conditions. 

This comes after ActionSA, yesterday, visited the school having received numerous complaints from disgruntled parents and members of the School Governing Body (SGB) at Corinth Senior Primary School, located in the Umzimkhulu Local Municipality, about the sad state in which this school and its learners currently find themselves.

While school gates were closed by parents on 24 April 2023 due to the poor infrastructure of the school in fear of the safety of pupils and teachers, parents are not happy that their children have not been able to attend school since its closure which has real consequences for these learners who are falling further and further behind in their schooling.

Located in a rural area, the school's issues are said to date back to the early 1980s when it was reported to us by parents and members of the SGB that there were two deaths at the school after corrugated roofing sheet fell due to poor infrastructure and took the lives of these learners.

Furthermore, the roof flew off the school's infrastructure in 2012, and no permanent solution was found by the Department of Education to fix the problem. History repeated itself in this regard on two separate occasions in January this year and cannot be allowed to continue any longer.  

Currently, the school sits as an empty shell without proper roofing infrastructure, mold-infested ceilings that pose a huge threat to the health of pupils, teachers and other staff. 

The Department has provided 10 temporary containers to be used as classrooms from the school, which are also not enough to accommodate the 400+ learners and staff.

It is also disheartening to learn that the containers have not been evaluated for quality assurance purposes to determine whether they meet all requirements before classes can resume. 

While pupils have been forced to not attend classes due to these circumstances, nevertheless, teachers can be seen 'reporting to work' by completing the school's sign-in book, and parking outside the school before heading home at end-of-day, and this has been done on a daily basis since the closure of the school which is a complete waste of resources.

While assessing the situation of the school, it became clear that the school is beyond repairs, and the Department should rather look into building new school infrastructure that will be safe and permanent and conducive to proper education as demanded by the Bill of Rights. 

In addition to referring this matter to the SAHRC, we have also written to KZN’s Education MEC to institute urgent interim measures to ensure that schooling resumes while a more permanent solution is sought so that these learners aren’t left further and further behind.

We look forward to the MEC and HRCs’ responses in this regard.

All children of school-going age have a constitutional right to schooling and the HRC and MEC are duty bound to address this situation as a matter of urgency if we are to salvage what remains of this academic year.  

Issued by ActionSA KZN Provincial Chairperson, Zwakele Mncwango