Promised toilets, Limpopo school told to close instead

Situated in Mabila Village, outside of Tshilamba in the Vhembe District, Limpopo, Mabila Primary School has been waiting for the provincial department of education to build new sanitation blocks for years, but they have recently learned that the wait was in vain.

New sanitation blocks for rural Mabila learners were never built, and the already distraught community have been told instead that their only primary school is set to be shut down by the provincial department of education soon.

Years waiting

In 2024, the department of education demolished all pit toilets at the school and provided a few mobile toilets, promising to build new sanitation blocks in the space of a few months. But after almost two years, there is no sign that construction will begin anytime soon.

“We still do not have proper toilets and no one is saying anything about this issue. The mobile toilets which we have been given are only cleaned after weeks, which make them unusable due to the unbearable smell,” said Rotshidzwa Maluga, the chairperson of the school governing body (SGB) at Mabila Primary.

Maluga told Elitsha that, instead of being informed about the day when construction of the toilets will commence at the school, they have been notified that Mabila is set to be merged with another school in a nearby village.

Merger on cards but not welcomed

“Earlier this month, Mabila Primary was notified by the provincial department of education that the school will be closed down at the end of March this year and learners will be moved to Mufulwi Primary School, in Mufulwi village, more than 20 kilometres away from Mabila Primary,” said Maluga.

But Maluga and fellow SGB members feel that the decision was not well calculated by the department as Mufulwi is very far from Mabila and it will be impossible for some of the learners to commute to the school there.

“First of all, they should have notified us last year that they planned to shut down our school this year so we could make arrangements in time to move our children out from the school,” said Maluga. “Now look, they want to shut down the school in the middle of a year, which is very wrong, and move our children to a school which is very far away from us. We are so disappointed.”

Mabila Primary currently has an enrolment of 142 learners from grades R to 7, all of whom reside within walking distance of the school, something which will not be possible if they are moved to Mufulwi Primary.

Maluga said that they fail to understand why the department wants to shutdown Mabila Primary when Mufulwi Primary is the smaller of the two with an enrolment of less than 60 learners and just 3 blocks of classrooms.

“We have been told that the reason to shut down the school is due to low enrolment, but to our surprise the enrolment has been always like this for years as we hardly had over 200 learners a year. But why do they want to close down the school now? What is the motive behind their decision? Those are the questions which we are asking ourselves,” said Maluga.

Currently, Mabila Primary consists of one principal and four teachers, two for intermediate and two for foundation phases. Speaking to Elitsha, a teacher at the school who wished to remain anonymous, said that she is not looking forward to the proposed move as she is happy with the current setup at Mabila where she has worked for over a decade.

Not prepared

Learners and parents are also not looking forward to the proposed move. “When we notified our stakeholders which include learners and parents, they both told us that they are not prepared for the proposed merger and they are going to contest to stop it from taking place,” Maluga said.

But Mike Maringa, the provincial spokesperson for education in Limpopo told Elitsha that Mabila Primary was first pronounced for a merger in 2022 owing to its learner enrolment of below 135.

“The merging centre is said to be Mufulwi Primary School. The MEC’s consultation took place on the 17th October 2022. Circular 82 of 2025 directed that all learners and educators at pronounced schools move to identified merging centres. Merging ensures that learners receive quality basic education,” said Maringa.

Maringa further stated that, small schools do not have adequate educators to implement the prescribed curriculum. “Such learners have content and knowledge gaps that lead to learner dropout or poor results, especially in grade 12,” he said.

Maringa failed to respond to questions on whether transport will be made available for learners from Mabila in order to get to Mufulwi Primary with ease should the merger take place.

Non-delivery of services a strategy

Maluga now believes that the delay in building new toilets for Mabila learners was done deliberately to force the community to agree to the merger. “Now it is clear why these people do not want to build us new sanitation blocks. The pit toilets were demolished about 20 months ago, but till today we continue to wait for new toilets, or just a date on when the construction process will take place,” said Maluga.