Grocott's Mail has again been given the bureaucratic runaround in trying to establish why, less than 20 years after its founding, Benjamin Mahlasela Secondary School in Grahamstown is a disaster.
Grocott's Mail has again been given the bureaucratic runaround in trying to establish why, less than 20 years after its founding, Benjamin Mahlasela Secondary School in Grahamstown is a disaster.
Following up on reports that the school had no principal, Grocott's Mail visited the school last Friday and was met with the sight of broken windows, classrooms filled with rubbish and emptied of desks, stationery and textbooks spilling out of cupboards on to the floor, light-fittings stripped, doors missing or off their hinges, and toilets filthy with raw sewage, with fittings removed or vandalised.
Despite having enough classrooms to accommodate around 1 000 pupils at the school, Grocott's Mail saw classes in progress in only two. The school has 14 teachers and 100 pupils. Our reporter was unable to confirm even the name of the principal because teachers were afraid to talk, fearing a backlash from the education department.
But the principal's office was empty and a source said he hadn't been to the school for some time. The school's deputy principal referred questions about the principal's absence to the education district office in Grahamstown.
Attempts to get information from the Grahamstown education district office director Amos Fetsha failed. He said questions must be directed to Eastern Cape education spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani. Pulumani redirected Grocott's Mail's questions to Fetsha, saying the school fell under Fetsha's district and it was up to him to provide Pulumani with information.
"I really don't know what to say as I'm completely dependent on [the Grahamstown office]for the factual nature as per your questions," Pulumani said this week. Yesterday Pulumani told Grocott's Mail that Fetsha had repeatedly assured him that someone was working on the questions and that Pulumani would get them soon. Also yesterday, Fetsha reiterated that he would respond only to questions from Pulumani and not the media.
