Tensions run high, as desks arrive late at school

IT was a day of mixed emotions which culminated in joy at Uitenhage's Solomon Mahlangu High School yesterday, after parents and staff were taken on a rollercoaster ride as they waited for their new desks to arrive.

"Thank you Jesus!" was the excited response of one parent who, along with many others, had been pleading for new furniture and for the pupils to be moved into a newly renovated school building for two years.

But their joy quickly turned to frustration when, after the first 130 desks were delivered at about 8am, trucks transporting the rest of the 600 desks from East London were delayed by more than 12 hours.

A staff member, who asked not to be named, said the department had fed them lies in an attempt to appease them temporarily after pupils and parents shut down the school last week, and vowed to keep it closed until the department provided the desks and other furniture locked up in government warehouses. - Tremaine van Aardt