AfriForum takes to Court over Nkandla school

The civil rights watchdog AfriForum instituted formal legal procedures against the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Education after the Nkungumathe community in Nkandla has been waiting for the building of the Khuba Secondary School for 20 years.

Members of the community approached AfriForum in February this year for help, and the organisation has since been assisting the community with legal help and also visited the community a number of times.

“AfriForum has no other choice but to take legal action against the Department of Education. Learners have to walk for between two and three hours to get to the nearest school, frequently through wetlands and across rivers that pose many risks to these learners. No child deserves to struggle so much just to obtain an education,” says Carien Bloem, Project Coordinator for Education at AfriForum.

Bloem also says that the quality of education that learners currently receive from schools in the vicinity does not adhere to the standards in terms Article 29(1) of the Constitution.

“The teacher-learner ratio in many classes is between 85 and 121 learners per teacher, and in most classes as many as ten learners have to share a textbook. Most learners have to sit on the ground during classes simply because there isn’t enough space for everyone.”

The Department has approved the Nkungumathe community’s application for a high school already in 1996, and the school was registered in 2007 as the Khuba Secondary School. Although an EMIS (Education Management Information System) number has been allocated to the school, the Department continues to offer empty promises. Its last promise was that mobile classrooms would have been erected in December 2016 to accommodate learners.

After numerous enquiries to the Department, AfriForum was informed that the Department would be retracting its 20-year promise and that a school would no longer be built.

“The building of the school will address a number of challenges in the Nkungumathe community and provide learners with access to quality education in a dignified manner,” Bloem says.

A letter of demand was sent to Mthandeni Dlungwana, MEC for Education in KZN. He has 14 days to react.

• See the letter of demand attached.
• Photo’s available on request. Contact Mariska Batt.
• Follow the link to Forum Nuus to watch a video of AfriForum’s visit to the school.