Fresh crisis at Goodhope Senior

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Wednesday November 26, 2014 17:03

 

The school has more than 2,000 students.Ironically the revelations in Parliament come barely four months after the high profile launch of a water augmentation scheme that the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources said would resolve water supply in Goodhope village.

In addition, regional education authorities last year told state media that the water problems had been resolved and that the perennial troubles had ended.

New Member of Parliament for the area, James Mathokgwane told legislators that he wants to make sure the school remains closed when the new term begins in January.

He told fellow legislators that he would rally parents, students, teachers and other leaders to boycott the school until the crisis is resolved. “I am not threatening the ministry, rather, I am telling the truth.

We cannot have a situation where students are forced to relieve themselves in the bush all the time. The water crisis in this school dates back to six years but nothing has been done to address the situation.”

Mathokgwane said students at the school often had to wait for the arrival of water in bowsers for their meals. “Sometime this year, some students had an attack of diarrhoea because the water that the school was given had been contaminated.

This does not only affect students but teachers as well. Teachers wanted to petition the ministry during examination time and we were forced to plead with them to let the students write first. The school cannot go on like this,” the MP said.

He stated that the water crisis is one of the reasons for the poor performance of students at the school.  Meanwhile Kgosi Lotlamoreng II of Barolong has said meetings held with authorities to find a solution, have been in vain.

“The situation is worrisome to a point that we even engaged the Education Ministry. They have promised us that they will do something for the problem to be resolved. We also had a meeting with the acting minister in November about problems that are being faced at the school,” Lotlamoreng said.

The paramount chief said he suspects the school may have been left out of the newly commissioned water augmentation project, as the rest of the village does not have supply problems. “The school also has a high number of students. I believe that if the water shortage is addressed, there could be peace in that school.”