Still stuck in a quagmire

The Unitas Secondary School in Welkom has been continually flooded with raw sewage for the past four years.

The situation is so bad that the school buildings are starting to crack and deteriorate. The school’s basement is flooded with more than 80 000 litres of wastewater.

“It looks like a sewage swimming pool under the school,” says Leon Young, maintenance manager for the school.

The situation also extends beyond the basement. Learners have to navigate the flowing sewage to move between classrooms. The school’s sports fields are unusable and the school hall cannot be used for anything, especially not the writing of examinations. There is wastewater under the floor of the hall and under the stage.

“On a daily basis I speak to the municipal manager, the mayoral committee, and the director but our pleas fall on deaf ears,” says Young.

“All remedial actions are short lived and never followed up on.”

George Motja, principal of the school, says the situation causes a serious threat to the health of the learners and teachers alike.

Countless important people on national, provincial and local level have graced the school to “investigate” the problem over the years, but nothing has been done, he says.

“They have offered solutions and plans, but nothing has ever come of it,” says Motja.

The municipality once put two pumps around the school. These apparently only worked for two weeks and then this ‘solution’ was also stopped.

Motja says last year John Steenhuizen and other top government officials came to the school to assess the situation. The solution they offered lasted about a week.

The situation was so bad at one stage the school had to close for two weeks. Learners are losing valuable school time, but no-one seems to care.