About 30 pupils have to wade through a hippo-infested lake in far northern KwaZulu-Natal to get to school, because a boat the Provincial Education Department provided for them in 2016 has not been working for months.
Since April 2017, they have been ferried to school by one of KwaZulu-Natal education department’s eight boats, procured at a cost of R4.1 million.
Seven of the boats are redundant, as the rivers in which they would have been used are too shallow.
The pupils walk for over a kilometre to reach the lake. They cross it to get to the mainland, and then take a taxi to school.
A pupil said the total trip takes about 90 minutes.
“I have seen hippos sometimes when we cross. We are risking our lives,” said one pupil.
Pupils wear casual clothes when crossing and either carry backpacks or hold their schoolbags above their heads.
After reaching the mainland, they change into their school uniforms in the dune forest before taking their transport to school.
“It’s difficult crossing as our textbooks sometimes get wet,” the pupil said.