Parents close Eastern Cape school where playground is used as a toilet
Toilets at the primary school in Komani have not functioned for six years
For years, learners at Van Coller Primary School have had to relieve themselves on the playground because their toilets are broken. Photos: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
Parents are protesting daily outside Van Coller Primary School in Komani, Eastern Cape, stopping classes. They have vowed to keep the school closed until the provincial education department repairs the school toilets, which have not functioned for six years. Learners have been relieving themselves in the playground.
The protest started Monday, when teachers returned for the school term. On Tuesday, parents blocked the gates and prevented parents registering their children. On Wednesday, learners were turned away.
Bulelani Qowa, a parent, said, “For the past three years the department has been telling the school that it is on the list for renovations.”
Qowa said he informed the ward councillor years ago, who had promised to assist.
“As parents, we have decided to take matters into our own hands. We cannot keep quiet while our children are exposed to health hazards. The teachers have functioning toilets; it is only our children who are without,” he said.
“There is a lot that is wrong at this school, but our immediate demand is for the toilets to be fixed. There is no running water due to a broken pipe that has not been repaired for years. The playground has effectively become a toilet, which has killed sport at this school. There’s no fencing and classrooms have broken ceilings and windows,” he said.
“Van Coller used to be one of the best schools in Komani, excelling in sport and music. My mother attended primary school here, and so did I. Now, my child is in grade 5. I want him to get the best foundation, but that is impossible under these conditions,” said Qowa.
Another parent, Sivuyile Qamza, said they would accept temporary toilets if necessary.
On Wednesday, we also met parents who opposed the disruption of classes. They were concerned that enrolment would drop and threaten the school’s viability, but agreed drastic action was needed.
Community leader Kowaba Swaartbooi said that at a special meeting on Tuesday with parents, teachers and the department, it was decided that the school maintenance budget be used to fix the toilets.
“We are hoping this will happen within the week so that learners can return to school on Monday. If not, we will have no choice but to continue with the protest,” said Swartbooi.
Provincial education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima has not yet responded to GroundUp.
Parents have vowed to keep Van Coller Primary School closed until toilets are fixed.
Support independent journalism
Donate using Payfast
Don't miss out on the latest news
We respect your privacy, and promise we won't spam you.
Next: Elections 2026: ANC is bleeding seats in this failing Northern Cape municipality
Previous: Showdown outside Durban school over places for immigrant children
Letters
Dear Editor
I applaud what the Komani community did for their school, Van Coller primary school. The community should be doing the same with the other schools, which are in the same condition. Clinics conditions in Komani need to be improved as well as they are in a dire state and be operational 24 hours a day.
Dear Editor
The report on the closure of Van Coller Primary School in Komani is not just a story of infrastructure neglect; it is a harrowing indictment of a department that has fundamentally abandoned its duty of care. To allow a school’s sanitation system to remain non-functional for six years—forcing children to relieve themselves on a playground—is an act of profound structural violence against the dignity of the youth.
The "drastic action" taken by parents is the only rational response to a catastrophic collapse of administrative accountability. When a state department makes empty promises for three years while children are exposed to health hazards and denied basic sanitation, it is no longer mere "service delivery failure." It is governmental complicity in the degradation of our children's rights.
A school without toilets, running water, or security is not a place of learning; it is a monument to state neglect. This crisis at Van Coller Primary signifies a blatant betrayal of the foundational rights guaranteed by our Constitution. The Eastern Cape Department of Education must move beyond the rhetoric of budgets and immediate maintenance; they must reckon with the fact that their silence and delay have effectively treated these learners as expendable.
Our children deserve a future that does not involve the humiliation of a playground latrine. Until the authorities prioritize the basic dignity of learners over bureaucratic inertia, the closure of such institutions remains the community's only tool for justice.
© 2026 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.