BCC evicts national registration officials from Nketa Primary

News
BULAWAYO City Council has resolved to “evict” officials from the Registrar General’s Office from Nketa Primary School, citing a serious shortage of toilets at the institution.

BULAWAYO City Council has resolved to “evict” officials from the Registrar General’s Office from Nketa Primary School, citing a serious shortage of toilets at the institution.

by NQOBILE BHEBHE

The Registrar General’s Office has been using one of the classrooms as a satellite office since April 2005.

Council says more than 300 people were being attended to daily and were now crowding out pupils at the ablution facilities.

The school also fears for the safety of pupils.

Health services director, Zanele Hwalima is quoted in a council report for December saying the school has an enrolment of 1 283 pupils with only 32 toilets “which translated to one hole to 40 pupils.”

“The pupils faced challenges when using the toilets as they shared them with the general public” she said.

Bulawayo-City-Council

“The school’s enrolment by gender against the holes is as follows: Girls 623 with 18 holes, which means one hole serves 35 pupils. There are 660 boys, with 14 toilet holes, meaning one hole serves 47 pupils. On a daily basis, over 300 adults visit the school for their national identification and birth certificate registration.”

Hwalima said the toilet flush systems broke down more often than expected due to over use. The school found it difficult to control the public on the use of the toilets.

“Repairs for the flush systems continued to escalate. The school also feared for the security of the pupils in the toilets, as it had no means of monitoring the people who used these toilets.”

“However, it was pertinent to mention that to date, the school had not experienced any child disappearance, although the issue of security was of paramount importance. There was a shortage of classrooms and the school certainly needed that classroom for its programmes,” she said.

Councillors said an alternative location should be found for the Registrar General’s Office and they settled for Nketa Housing Office.