Mohwibidi Primary School shuts down due to peaking
sanitation crisis.
ActionSA has learnt with deep shock and disappointment that 224 learners at Mohwibidu
Primary School, were sent home due to no ablutions in the school. During our on-site
inspection to assess the readiness for the 2023 academic year, on the 18 January 2023, we
discovered the school was plagued with sanitation crisis.
Mohwibidi Primary School in Moletjie Ga-Setati, situated 37km outside of Polokwane, has
been without proper sanitation facilities since January 2020 when their toilets collapsed. 3
years later, the Limpopo Department of Education still has not put a permanent solution in
place for the learners of Mohwibidi. Today, the sanitation issue reached crisis levels when
the school shut its gates, sending 224 learners home, barely 3 weeks into the 2022
academic year.
Infrastructure challenges have continuously plagued schools in Limpopo, with pupils
having no option but to use undignified and often dangerous toilets for years. This would
be almost a decade since the tragic death of Michael Komape and it seems the Limpopo
Department is not heeding the call for infrastructure in the province seriously.
South Africa’s Schools Act’s Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School
Infrastructure, which were signed into law in 2013, set clear deadlines for when schools
should be provided with access to water and proper sanitation, among other basic
infrastructure. The norms and standards also stipulated that by November 2020, all schools
should have enough toilets. This is not the lived reality for learners in Limpopo, especially in
far flung rural areas such as Mohwibidi Primary School.
The MEC of Education in Limpopo, Ms Lerule-Ramakhanya, continues to mislead the
public about the state of readiness of our schools while grandstanding at a few wellequipped schools, when it is clear the department is failing to deliver on its constitutional
obligations to provide safe and dignified toilets to most schools in the province.
Tomorrow, Provincial Chairperson, Sello Lediga alongside Capricorn Region Chairperson,
Elphas Mokoena, alongside Provincial Head of Governance, Snowy Kennedy and
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Regional Fundraising Chairperson, Kgaugelo Mapoulo, will be visiting the school to
engage desperate parents who are seeking for a solution so their children could get back
into the school corridors.
Date: 02 February 2023
Time: 10h00
Venue: Mohwibidu Primary School
Place: Ga-Setati, Moletjie
ActionSA will pursue this matter that greatly undermines the dignity and humanity of the
pupils at Mohwibidi Primary School, until a permanent solution is found.
