A Soweto school has been without clean and safe drinking water for six years. This is despite the Gauteng Department of Education promising to resolve the crisis.
Goza Primary school is reported to accommodate 1,400 pupils and is forced to come up with ways to make sure that those on site can survive on the bare minimum.
On Monday Equal Education declared the situation at Goza Primary unlawful and unacceptable. The school has been fighting for six years to get the Gauteng Department of Education to address the problem.
MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi, however, says that the national Department of Public Works and the previous City of Joburg administration are responsible.
Lesufi’s office said because Goza primary was built on the same land as another school, it had been struggling to get the property rezoned, which was out of his department’s mandate. When the neighbouring school uses water, the taps in Goza Primary release little to no water.
Equal Education’s deputy general secretary Tracey Malawana said: “There is water in that area. The issue is that the department needs to make time to go and address it, they can’t keep on saying ‘we’ll address it and we’ll meet with you’. They know what the issue is, they just need to attend to it.”
The minimum standards of the Department of Basic Education require that every school had to have water, electricity, working toilets and safe classrooms by December 2020.
Equal education’s law centre will follow up on the issue.
[Picture: Abigail Javier/Eyewitness News]