Pupils demand better security and sanitation at schools

Pupils protest outside of St Georges Cathedral last week.

The Equal Education Western Cape branch and a group of schools held a picket in the city centre last Thursday, February 22, on the day of the State of the Province address, to get the attention of Premier Helen Zille and MECs.

They want a response to demands made during a Safe Schools march which took place last year, as well as adequate Day Zero plans for schools.

Chulumanco Nkasela, a community leader at Equal Education, said the picket was for government to engage with them for better security and sanitation at schools.

“Last year, we held a march and we invited the premier and other stakeholders to engage with us, but we have yet to receive an acknowledgement so today, we have brought the pupils who experience problems with water and sanitation daily – a boy was just shot in Langa.

“We are trying to engage about these problems but the authorities have not gotten back to us.”

She said a census done by Equal Education showed that about 244 schools do not have proper sanitation. The schools that attended the picket included Ikamvalethu High School and Isilimela Comprehensive school in Langa, as well as Manzomthombo Secondary School in Mfuleni and Oscar Mpetha High School in Nyanga.

The City of Cape Town did not respond to enquiries about the picket at the time of print.