Tulbagh gets multi-million rand water upgrade
TULBAGH - The Water and Sanitation Department has spent R113-million building a bulk water supply system in the Western Cape town of Tulbagh.
The project, in collaboration with the local municipality, aims to offer the farming community clean and quality drinking water.
Locals say they hope future phases of the project will address the decrepit infrastructure that often leaves them without water for days.
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eNCA
14 hours ago
- eNCA
Tulbagh gets multi-million rand water upgrade
TULBAGH - The Water and Sanitation Department has spent R113-million building a bulk water supply system in the Western Cape town of Tulbagh. The project, in collaboration with the local municipality, aims to offer the farming community clean and quality drinking water. Locals say they hope future phases of the project will address the decrepit infrastructure that often leaves them without water for days.
Eyewitness News
a day ago
- Eyewitness News
US cuts food aid to 36,000 children in Lesotho
It is 8:23am in the highlands of Semonkong. Learners line up at Ha Samuel Primary School for their morning porridge. Many of them would not have had breakfast were it not for the school's food scheme. Over 20% of the Lesotho population is at risk of not having enough food. Rates of childhood stunting due to malnutrition are high. Many children are from child-headed households. 'For some of them, lunch at school is the last meal of the day,' said one teacher. Ha Samuel is among 200 schools fed by Bokamoso Ba Bana, a programme funded for $28.5-million (M511.2-million) over five years by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). (One loti (M) is equal to one South African Rand.) Run by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a US-based humanitarian organisation, the programme was designed to support more than 36,000 children from 2022 until 2027. Minister of Education Ntoi Rapapa has estimated that the project feeds 17% of primary school learners in Lesotho. But GroundUp has learned that the USDA has abruptly cut its funding of the programme. CRS issued a global announcement (removed from their website following GroundUp questions, but still on the Internet Archive) on 21 May that more than 780,000 children in 11 countries will be affected by the cuts to their food programmes. But schools in Lesotho say they have not been formally told the programme will end. We spoke to seven teachers at three schools — Ha Samuel, St Leonard Primary School in Semonkong, and Senqu Anglican in Mokhotlong. They had heard rumours that the programme might end, but no official confirmation. Matlhokomelo Liporo, who manages feeding at Ha Samuel, said she was told by a CRS staff member that 'they might not come back after winter break because of President Trump's aid cuts'. A teacher at St Leonard Primary, Mojapela Ramothibe, said the school's 630 students relied heavily on these meals. 'Now they are full, attentive, and participate more in class without worrying about hunger,' he said. 'CRS never lets the storerooms run dry.' His colleague, 'Mampho Ntlhanngoe, noted that CRS also trained schools to grow their own vegetables and provided seeds to the school. 'We improved on self-reliance,' she said. But other foodstuffs that they cannot grow are still needed. CRS Country Representative Kris Ozar confirmed that the programme will end, but said they are 'still trying to understand the implications and next steps' and are working to communicate with their partners. The cuts to the food programme are among a raft of drastic measures taken by the US government in recent months, decimating Lesotho's health sector, particularly the HIV response. Last week, a US Congressional delegation led by Katherine Bowles from the Senate Appropriations Committee visited the country to assess the broader impact of American aid in the country and 'inform decisions by the US Senate'. MORE THAN JUST MEALS Beyond providing meals, CRS also partnered with the Lesotho College of Education to offer 25 annual scholarships between 2024 and 2026 to preschool teachers from the targeted districts to study for Early Childhood Education certificates at the college. The project also aimed to invest in the local economy. Over its five-year lifecycle, it would procure 3,050 tonnes of food including beans, leafy greens, and eggs from regional and local farmers, in addition to the 6,950 tonnes of US-donated staples like maize meal. School infrastructure was also improved under the project. Ha Samuel previously had no toilets, forcing students and teachers to use the surrounding bushes. But CRS built proper sanitation facilities and provided sanitary pads, enabling girls to attend school during their periods. 'They even trained boys about menstruation,' Liporo said. 'Now, a boy will come asking for a pad to help a classmate whose dress got blotted. That confidence and empathy didn't exist before.' With the programme now cut, teachers worry they will have to rely once again on the under-resourced and poorly managed government feeding scheme. 'We will go back to our old problems,' said 'Mammenyane Thatho of St Leonard. 'Many kids come to school hungry, expecting their first meal here.' 'Mabafokeng Mothibi, in Semonkong, who works with a cooperative of other farmers to supply 46 schools in the area, said the programme's termination spells disaster for local farmers. 'Almost every vegetable farmer here was involved in the project supply chain,' she said. She says she helped resource-poor farmers in the area with seedlings and would later split sales revenue with them. From other farmers she would buy vegetables at M10 per kilogram. In total, Mothibi and her colleagues supplied almost a tonne of green vegetables to different schools every month. 'Many farmers expanded production in anticipation of supplying schools under the CRS project. Now they will be stuck with unsold crops on their fields if the project does not continue,' she said. Cooks are also worried about their livelihoods. Under CRS, cooks earned about M3,200 per month, more than double the M1,500 they were paid under the government feeding programme in the past. GOVERNMENT ASSURES CONTINUITY Lesotho's Principal Secretary for Education Ratšiu Majara insists the government can absorb the loss and continue with the programme. 'We are aware of the termination,' he told GroundUp. 'But the school feeding programme existed before, and I guarantee that children in Semonkong, Thaba-Tseka, and Mokhotlong will continue to get their meals.' The government allocates about M240-million annually for school feeding and receives additional support from the World Food Programme (WFP). In 2024, WFP received €600,000 (M11,936.486) from Monaco and about M25-million from Japan to boost Lesotho's school feeding programme. But teachers and feeding managers at primary schools are sceptical. They say that when they were previously under the government programme, they frequently ran out of food. 'Attendance would drop,' Ramothibe recalled. 'Some kids only came to school to eat.' Liporo said many children walked for up to two hours to get to school at Ha Samuel on an empty stomach, only to find no food upon arrival. This article first appeared on GroundUp. Read the original article here.
Eyewitness News
2 days ago
- Eyewitness News
100-year-old Flagstaff school is falling apart
Flagstaff Comprehensive High School in Dlibona village in the Eastern Cape, built more than 100 years ago by the community, was to have been rebuilt in 2013. But years later, the school is in a terrible state. The classrooms are dilapidated, leaking, have broken windows and doors and cracked walls. During heavy rains, learners are often sent home because the classrooms are flooded. There are 14 pit toilets, only two of which are in working condition. The rest have no doors and the seats are broken. Since it was built by the community in 1924, the school got its first upgrade in 1975 to make it a junior secondary school. In 1996 it became a combined school. In 2013, the education department identified it and two other old schools for refurbishment. The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) was tasked with managing the project. In its 2015/16 report, the ECDC said the school, had been identified as one of three old schools to benefit from a R195-million reconstruction project. The school was to get eight new classrooms, an administration block, a media centre, a science lab, a social science room, two offices for heads of department, a teachers' workroom, a dining room and kitchen, a guardhouse, 19 new ablution facilities, and new covered walkways. 'The school will be the first to be completed and should be ready for its 1,105 learners in the new school year,' the ECDC said. ECDC spokesperson Malithatwe Nombewu confirmed that the school was allocated to them by the provincial treasury. Nombewu said that a contractor was appointed in October 2015 for the construction of the primary school which was completed in 2018 for about R40-million. She said a separate budget was to be secured for the construction of the new high school but the education department instructed them to close the project in the 2019/20 financial year. The project was then handed back to the education department as no additional budget had been allocated. The school currently has 31 classrooms with more than 1,200 learners from grades 8 to 12. Out of the 31 classrooms, only five were built by the government. School Governing Body committee member Zifezile Dling-Dling told GroundUp that when the new primary school was built, the provincial Department of Education told them that they need to look for another site because the current site is not suitable for the construction of a new school. He said a site was then identified in Sigingqini, not far from the school but nothing has been done to date. 'This is very frustrating … We are left in the dark and our fear is that our classrooms are falling apart,' he said. Dling-Dling said that the poor state of the school has contributed to the decreasing attendance rates, particularly in winter. He said the department built 27 flush toilets in 2023, but the toilets aren't connected to water. Eastern Cape Department of Education spokesperson Vuyiseka Mboxela told GroundUp this week that they are still looking for a suitable site to build the new high school. 'The issue is not building the school but the land suitability for the construction of the school … In this case, we are engaging the school, community, SGB, and Ingquza Hill municipality.' Asked about the incomplete toilets built at the school two years ago, Mboxela said there were water issues beyond their control. 'The project was stopped because the municipality had no running water,' she said. Mboxela acknowledged that the department is waiting for the school to find another suitable location so they can resuscitate the project. This article first appeared on GroundUp. Read the original article here.
