Cape Town - With pupils coming from as far as Delft and Mfuleni, a coalition of interfaith groups in District Six united in an effort to raise awareness about the dangers pupils at Holy Cross Primary School succumbed to, after a four-year plea to build a playground for the school.
While there are roughly 600 pupils who have nowhere else to play or have their lunch except the street and the pavement around the school, senior researcher at the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Gwynne Robins, said that the conditions the children have to face comprise their safety and well-being.
"With children coming from distant areas, some have fainted from hunger on arrival. Come break time, the children sit on socially distant white lines in the street and on the pavement with their feet in the gutter. A table is set up in the middle of the street, and the children line up for food. A teacher stands at the top of the street with a sign to stop cars from driving down it, and if they do, the children are all moved out of the street."
"All around us are bare fields which, until recently, were covered with waist-high grass and homeless people living in them. After one child was raped, the children were only allowed on the street and on the pavement. There are many rough people around. Teachers’ wallets, cell phones, and school lunches are stolen. One teacher was stabbed in her cheek when she held onto her cell phone, and the Catholic priest who lives across the road broke his ankle when he chased someone who had grabbed a teacher’s bag," said Robins.
One of the teachers who was assaulted, Eurica Shand, mentioned how she is constantly afraid of what might happen at work after her ordeal on the school grounds.
"I feel terribly upset that we are still waiting for the grounds to be made safe and secure for our learners and educators because of what happened to me when I was pulled out of my car by knifepoint and robbed of all my belongings. I always feel terrified when coming here, but just think about the pupils who need me."
"There were other incidents that happened to teachers' cars as well as to another teacher who was stabbed with a knife in the face while on break duty. We plead for security and a proper playground and secure fencing," said Shand.
The Western Cape Department of Education’s spokesperson, Bronagh Hammond, said that while the school is leased by WCED, the school itself is not on the land that the department owns.
She mentioned that several meetings had taken place over a period of time with the SGB, interest groups, the former Mayor Dan Plato and individuals in order to obtain land for recreational use, but none of those meetings bore fruit.
"In 2016, efforts were made to obtain the use of land opposite the main building in Nile Street. However, this attempt fell through. In 2019, the school made contact with the office of the ex-Mayor of Cape Town, Dan Plato, to negotiate for the portion of land next to the main building of the school for recreational purposes. However, due to Covid-19 and the municipal elections, further communication was halted. However, the WCED Circuit Manager will consult with the principal and SGB to revive this issue with the current mayor’s office," said Hammond.
The City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayco member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Eddie Andrews, said that while the city is aware of the need for recreational spaces for children in District Six, the city plan is currently finalising a Public Realm Study for District Six in collaboration with caretakers who have been nominated by the District Six community, to participate in the process of finalising the list of public spaces and streets to be prioritised for redevelopment.
"To date, five co-design workshops have been concluded, and one more is left where the City and the nominated caretakers from District Six will finalise the list of public spaces and streets to be prioritised for redevelopment in the future."
"The workshops focus on the guidelines for the look and feel of the public spaces and streets in District Six. The public realm is the spaces between buildings, such as streets, squares, green spaces, and pedestrian areas that are freely accessible to the general public.“
"The Public Realm Study is to be concluded by June 30, 2022, and will inform the draft Local Spatial Development Framework (LSDF), or local neighbourhood plan for District Six, and the implementation of a prioritised public space flowing from this process," said Andrews.
Weekend Argus