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Businesswoman steps in to save dilapidated school

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One of the very first children to attend Bale Primary School is giving back to her home village by pledging to build new classrooms and toilets for the dangerously dilapidated rural school in Limpopo that is on the verge of collapsing.

When Gauteng businesswoman Mulalo Simeti recently read Health-e News report that was published on Health24 of her old primary school that was in danger of collapsing and burying learners alive, she knew she had to do something.

Read: Is this the worst school building in SA?

Originally from Niani village, about 100 kms east of Musina, Simeti now lives in Johannesburg where she is a successful website developer.

“As a former pupil and one of the very first children to attend primary education at the Bale Primary School, I felt it to be only fair that I give back to my home village,” she said. “I value education, health and development of my fellow villagers.”

Currently, pupils are being forced to attend classes in dilapidated buildings that parents fear may collapse at anytime. Such fears led parents to remove children from the school earlier this year. The school’s pit toilets are also unusable, forcing children to use nearby bushes to relieve themselves.

Bale Primary School toilets: Bale Primary caters for about 300 pupils who have no where to relieve themselves but the bush thanks to the state of the school's toilets.

Read: SA's big stink - schools with no flushing toilets

The only primary school in the area, Bale Primary School caters for about 300 learners in grades one through seven who have now been confined to two classrooms as others are unusable.

School Governing Body Chairperson Tshamanavhela Rasilavhi said the school is honoured that an alum has stepped in to help.

“As a school, we feel very honoured and happy that one of our own has stepped in to help where our government has failed us,” Rasilavhi said. “The construction has already started, and our kids will have new classrooms and toilets when the year starts in two months time.” – Health-e News

Collapsed roof: Bale Primary houses learners from grade one through to grade seven are being taught in just two classrooms after the roofs of other rooms collapsed.

Also read:

Hundreds of school children suffer from food poisoning

Sanitation crisis in Tembisa schools

Childhood traumatic experiences linked with IBS

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