E650 000 TOILETS LEAVE RURAL SCHOOL BROKE

MPAKA – Style and class in the face of abject poverty has cost Mpaka High School about E650 000 for just eight-cubicle-toilets.

Out of this amount, E510 000 has already been paid to the contractor. The eight toilets, which have a shower, are for a school located about 23 kilometres north of Siteki, a town in the eastern part of the Lubombo Region. It is a school sandwiched by a community that sells its wares along the Lonhlupheko – Siteki (MR 3) and Manzini – Simunye (MR 7) Roads. The school offers its services to expatriates and locals in close proximity to the Mpaka Refugee Camp. The eight cubicles, which have seen the bank balance of the school plummet from E825 289.24 (US$54 064.15) to E0.00 (US$0.00), were constructed in March 2019.

Despite having this amount in its bank account held with Nedbank Swaziland, the school had other obligations which may have been debts brought forward from the previous year.
According to documentation seen by this publication, the toilets were constructed by Mr Builders and Construction, a company trading as Basadi Construction. This construction company was initially awarded the contract to construct the ablution block on March 1, 2019. When offered the business opportunity, the task at hand was worth E469 060, inclusive of 15 per cent value added tax (VAT).

Proposal

This was after the company had submitted a proposal or quotation expressing interest in the execution of the said task. The school, represented by the head teacher, Mfanizile Bhembe and the chairperson of the school committee, Sabelo Fakudze, expressed pleasure in informing the construction company that after great scrutiny and prudent consideration, their (Basadi Construction) proposal had been successful. This decision emanated from a call made by the head teacher that a new block of toilets was needed. In a meeting between the school committee and the administration, Bhembe reported that the issue of toilets was a state of emergency – with their construction outstanding. It was reported that Bhembe, a former deputy head teacher of Ubombo Technical and Commercial (UTech) College, said they (old-toilets) were a health hazard and he wondered how they had been used in such a dilapidated state.

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