Pupils rebuild collapsed road to access school

Dozens of pupils from Curry's Post Primary School in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands ditched their pens and books for mud and rocks when they took it upon themselves to rebuild a collapsed road on Tuesday.

According to volunteer teacher Robyn Hedley, at least 25 pupils were left stranded along the D293 district road as vehicles were unable to access the area after heavy rains. 

“More than 20 children from a very small village in the Morton area were left stranded. Transport is very difficult for them and this has been an ongoing issue whenever there are heavy rains,” she said.

Hedley said the school has 65 pupils in total and for 25 having to miss school due to a lack of basic services was unacceptable. 

“I feel so disappointed for our children. After 28 years of democracy, children are still  struggling to get to school.”

A local resident and engineer, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the drain pipe had been destroyed and needed replacing. 

“I drove there the other day. Looks like a grader destroyed the drain pipe that is under the road. They need to dig up the old pipe and replace it.” 

Department of transport spokesperson Kwanele Ncalane said they were looking into the matter. 

The department of education had not responded to queries at the time of publication.