Almost 100 disabled pupils – some as young as eight and others with no limbs – have for months been trying to help one another go to the toilet and watching helplessly when one of them has a seizure.
The pupils at Vukuhambe Special Needs School in Mdantsane are left unattended and without adult supervision during weekends because of the Eastern Cape education department’s failure to pay support staff for overtime.
This has been the case since March, when the supporting staff – including cleaners, cooks, caregivers, drivers and security – decided to stop working on weekends and stop putting in extra time due to the non-payment of overtime.
The go-slow has also resulted in the 49 pupils, who live with their families and have to be driven to and from school, missing out on invaluable school time, because the staff has refused to go above and beyond the call of duty.
Instead of picking up the vulnerable children from their homes at around 6am as they had been doing, drivers are now working from 8am as per their work description.
This results in pupils missing out on two hours as they only get to the NU9 school at around 10am. Cooks and cleaners no longer work from 6am to 6pm. Instead they start at 8am and leave at 4.30pm. Meals are served late and the hostel is unkempt.
In a shocking twist, the education department – which has been entrusted with looking after the 141 pupils at the school – pleaded ignorance, with provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima saying they had no idea that the children were being left unattended.
The Daily Dispatch understands the school has an enrolment of 141 disabled pupils with mild to severe disabilities, from Grade R to Grade 12. Of those, 92 live at the school’s hostel and 49 stay with their families.
Because the pupils are left without adult supervision on weekends, they try to look after one another by helping each other onto their wheelchairs and to the toilet.
Sometimes they have to watch helplessly when one of them has a seizure.
One of the parents, Raymond Cumming, who has a child living at the hostel, told of his heartbreak when he got to the school one Sunday and saw his eight-year-old wheelchair-bound son on the floor. He had been crawling and trying to get himself back onto the wheelchair.
“He must have fell off his chair. He was drenched in urine and faeces as there was no one to change his nappy. I cleaned him up and helped other kids who needed to get cleaned and took them to the bathroom,” said Cumming.
He was speaking to the Daily Dispatch yesterday after concerned parents and school governing body [SGB] members went to the provincial treasury office in Bhisho to inquire about the non-payment of overtime to the support staff.
SGB deputy chairman Mawethu Ziwele said three weeks ago one pupil stabbed another in the eye when there was no adult around.
According to Ziwele the incident happened inside the school’s dining hall.
“As parents we could not sit back and watch our children being left in that state, so we decided to assist the staff with getting the money that they are owed so things can go back to normal at the school,” said Ziwele.
The pupils have also allegedly been exposed to thugs, who walk into the school because there is no security.
They steal their clothes, television sets and food.
SGB chairman Phumzile Topolo said the unpaid overtime dates back to 2008.
The workers were allegedly told by an official from the department of education that the money owed to them was with the treasury department.
However, the group was shocked when treasury referred them back to the department of education, saying they had not received any request for such payment.
This was confirmed by provincial treasury spokesman Pumelele Godongwana, who told the Daily Dispatch that they had not received any submissions from education on the matter.
“Once education makes the submissions, the department will verify the correctness of the information provided before approval [of payment]. We have a turnaround period of five days to approve such payments, subject to the correctness of the information provided,” said Godongwana.
Mtima said they would “investigate” the matter. —arethal@dispatch.co.za..