By Johnathan Paoli
The Gauteng Education Department has moved to put contingency measures in place for matriculants affected by ongoing water outages and protest disruptions in the communities of Westbury and Coronationville.
Department spokesperson Steve Mabona confirmed that while water tankers and JoJo tanks had been deployed to affected schools, the prolonged lack of supply has stretched the system to breaking point.
“We have tanks, JoJo tanks, in our schools. When we have water, we then fill up those tanks. But if, on a continuous basis, there’s no water, we will then be depleted,” he said.
The outages, which have sparked days of unrest, left teaching schedules in disarray and raised concerns about the impact on learners preparing for crucial final examinations.
Mabona said the department’s immediate focus was on protecting the academic progress of Grade 12 learners.
“The only challenge in Coronationville is that we have those that are coming from outside those areas. Now the arrangement is that especially the Grade 12s, they are writing at the neighbouring schools. We’ve made those arrangements for them to continue to write,” he said.
Protests erupted earlier this week, with residents demanding urgent intervention to restore water services.
Several community members sustained rubber bullet injuries on Wednesday when demonstrations turned violent.
The unrest has prevented some learners from outside the affected communities from reaching their schools, further disrupting teaching and learning.
“In that entire area, our schooling is not normal. The lower grades cannot access schools unless they live within walking distance. Grade 12s have been our main concern, and we’ve ensured their preparatory examinations continue without major interruptions,” Mabona stressed.
Similar arrangements have been implemented in Ebony Park, where many learners are walking to schools. Principals are collecting examination papers from distribution points to ensure assessments go ahead.
The water outages in Westbury and Coronationville have also cast a spotlight on broader service delivery and infrastructure issues affecting schools across the province.
In The Vaal, learners at the newly opened Tsepong Secondary School have reportedly been attending classes for only three hours daily due to water and sanitation challenges.
Mabona acknowledged the difficulties but assured the public that the matter had been resolved.
“Yes, indeed, we are aware. The challenge was with the municipality, because we made a payment in January already. But there were problems of locating the transaction. There’s now confirmation that the municipality has received the money, and workers are on site connecting the school to park services for water and electricity,” he said.
Asked whether such problems pointed to systemic weaknesses in municipal payments and service connections, Mabona said schools generally receive allocations to pay for services directly.
“In this instance, because it was a new establishment, the department had to apply for the connection. But in all other schools, we provide them with their allocation to pay municipal services. Where challenges arise, we engage municipalities directly and make interim arrangements,” he said.
While the department is working to mitigate the immediate impact of the outages on matriculants, concerns remain about the long-term disruption to teaching.
Civil society groups have warned that if the crisis persists, it could compromise curriculum coverage, particularly for younger grades who are not part of examination contingency plans.
The department has urged calm and appealed for constructive dialogue between residents, municipalities, and education authorities.
INSIDE EDUCATION
