In Aliwal North in the Eastern Cape, 940 pupils at a primary school can only be taught for four hours a day because there are insufficient classrooms. Children also have to sit in burnt classrooms that could collapse on them at any time.
Teachers and parents scoured a horrific accident scene on Tuesday evening in search of clues to identify the six pupils killed when a truck smashed into a scholar transport bakkie. The children – roughly 14 to 17 years old and pupils at Ndamase Senior Secondary School in Ngqeleni outside Mthatha – were on their way home at about 3pm when tragedy struck on the T30 road not far from the school.
A grade 12 pupil who was allegedly raped by her school principal at gunpoint in Ntabankulu survived a suicide attempt a day before her assailant was arrested by police. Speaking to DispatchLIVE (http://www.dispatchlive.co.za) on Sunday, the mother of the 21-year-old victim said she was saddened as her child’s future had been destroyed “by someone who was supposed to be a guardian”.
The Eastern Cape education department's spokesperson, Vuyiseka Mboxela, said the theft had crippled the rolling out of ICT to transform learning and teaching.