By Rod Amner
Excited Archie Mbolekwa’s Grade Rs donned academic regalia at a moving ceremony to mark their ‘graduation’ to Grade 1 at the school recently.
However, the school’s seven water tanks ran dry this week, disrupting school meals and closing down the ablution blocks, forcing teachers to close early classes at noon every day this week.
One water tank was filled by Gift of the Givers last week, helping to keep the school afloat for a few days. But that, too, has dried up.
The school has seven water tanks, but deliveries from Makana water tankers have stopped, and rainfall has been minimal over the past few months.
The school has never had a direct municipal water supply. The school’s principal, Lindiso Funani, said Makana Municipality told him the school’s position was “too high” in Joza to allow water to be pumped there.
The school’s nutrition programme recently won an award as the second-best in the province. Still, the parents who arrive at the school at 6.30 am every morning to make porridge for the children have been unable to prepare meals because of the complete absence of water.
The ablution facilities have become unusable.
Archie Mbolekwa was the best-performing isiXhosa-medium school in the literacy survey conducted across the city earlier this year. A Grade 6 teacher was recently named the best teacher in the Eastern Cape, and Principal Funani has just learned that he passed his Masters in Education degree with distinction.
Despite these extraordinary achievements, the school, like many others in Makhanda, has been brought to its knees by the city’s protracted water and electricity outages.
