Limpopo pupils forced to live at school

Pupils and teachers at a Limpopo school are forced to sleep in the classrooms because there is no transport to take them back home.

This has resulted in two pupils being bitten by snakes while sleeping, as Mpepule Primary School is situated in the middle of the bushes at farm Overressl 90kms out of Lephalale.
A mother of one of the pupils who were bitten by a snake, Sinah Sepoloane said she was concerned at the lack of safety for pupils at the school.

Sopoloane’s eight-year-old son, Kholo Sepoloane, was bitten and sustained an injury to the left hand while he was sleeping in aside the classroom.

“I only got to know that my son had been bitten by a snake when he had already been admitted at Mokopane Hospital. A day after the incident,” she said.

Sepolaone, 27, said when she went to the hospital to visit her son, she got there to find him in serious pain.

She said she was happy the boy’s condition had improved.

“We are forced to take our children to the school because there is no transport for them. Now that they have become vulnerable to snake bites it leaves us heartbroken,” Sepoloane said.

She called on the provincial department of education to provide transport to rescue their children from the dangerous situation.

“Everybody around here knows that Mpepule is snake-infested but we have no other option,” Sepoloaneshe added.

The school's three classrooms are being used for learning during the day and as bedrooms during the night. The school has 142 pupils doing grades R to seven and only five teachers, including the principal.

Kholo and Amogelang Chikwama were still recovering at Mokopane Hospital.

Source: Sowetan