The swimming pool at one one of Johannesburg’s oldest and most prestigious inner-city schools, has been in a dilapidated state for four years, since the early days of Covid-19.
Recently appointed principal of Johannesburg Girls Preparatory School (JGPS), Risimati Chauke, told ‘The Star’ that the pool was in an abandoned state, drenched in sewage and overgrown weeds.
He made a plea for donations from stakeholders to help fix the pool so it could order offer swimming lessons to its 1 100 pupils. It is the only school with a pool locally.
Grade 5 teacher and founder of “Swim Smart Kids: Empowering Kids with Water Safety”, Rene Donenberg, and her husband, Robin Donenberg, emphasised that swimming was a very important life skill.
Rene said the learners were eager to learn swimming and had launched a back-a-buddy fund to fix the pool. Fixing the pool is estimated to cost about R200K. So far, R30 000 has been raised.
“The kids are desperate to learn how to swim. We forget children need to learn how to swim, it is a life skill. They can drown in a few centimetres of water, hence, they must learn how to swim. Swimming is not a luxury, it is a must,” she said.
“This project is close to our hearts. We have reached out to ‘The Star’, where we saw an article about Tatjana Smith looking to help build swimming pools, let her help build our pool.”
Since Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has pledged to bring back sports in schools, they also contacted the minister’s office to source funds.
“We reached out to businesses and the minister, but we are yet to hear from him. If the minister is trying to bring back sports in schools, this is the perfect chance for him to prove that,” said Robin.
The couple said social media was the driving force in their effort to raise awareness and funds to revamp the pool. They added that JGPS would also render swimming lessons to learners in neighbouring schools.
At the moment, one of the province’s echelon private schools, Roedean (SA) Junior School renders swimming lessons to JGPS learners.
Driven by passion and dedication to the project, Chauke and the school’s grounds staff have cleaned the pool.
In addition to the non-functioning swimming pool, the school has faced other challenges, such as being off the grid for a year, and lagging behind digitally.
It is a fee-paying school but due to a financially stretched economy, many parents have been failing to pay school fees, which impacts the school’s ability to maintain facilities. And most members of the school governing body (SGB) earned too little, said Chauke.
Furthermore, JGPS defaulted for R2 million in municipal rates, resulting in its electricity being cut-off. Electricity only came back in April, and the school is on a payment plan with the Joburg Municipality.
“We went to the municipality to negotiate how to pay back the electricity. We spoke to government institutions to quash the R2 million, because the school cannot afford to pay it back. Luckily, a good Samaritan donated a generator on Monday,” said Chauke.
Through dark and cold winters, they survived on gas to cook and feed learners. “Other schools fundraise for upgrades. We cannot fundraise to upgrade our school. Over the years, we were fundraising to pay the salaries of SGB members,” said Donenberg.
While enduring the plight of the digital divide, JGPS has had only three laptops that are not working since last year, and has a vacant computer lab functioning as a storeroom.
Chauke said: “We live in a new world, where children must learn how to use the computer. We are in the same calibre with private schools, yet they are ahead with technology, while we are behind. They have smart boards, we don’t. Let the kids learn how to use computers.”
He said there was strong support from parents who had also committed to donate money, and added that once the pool was renovated, the school would be able to host swimming contests.
“We need the swimming pool revamped to attract every child to learn how to swim. We have the pool, but we don’t have the money. It is a beautiful school, and it must come back to its glory. We have fantastic sporting facilities, there is no way we can let these kids not learn how to use these facilities,” said Chauke.
People and stakeholders can help donate by clicking on the link: https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/swim-smart-kids
The Star
hope.mafu@inl.co.za