Children at the Ocean View Care Centre have to spend rainy days in cold dark container classrooms because the school has no electricity and the playground floods during heavy rains.
Ocean View Care Centre, a preschool for underprivileged children in Ocean View, has been without electricity for more than six months, and the City says the “solution is complex”.
The Care Centre, a division of Soteria Ministries, has been run out of shipping containers on City land in Hydra Avenue since February 2015. It provides refuge, food, and education for children aged 4 to 6.
The school’s electricity supply came from a connection to the distribution board at the Ocean View civic centre, but, according to Johann Kikillus, the school’s founder, the electricity started tripping at the board about seven months ago and the City informed him that a new pre-paid meter would be installed at the school to solve the problem.
“I have written several letters to the mayor's office over the past seven months enquiring when the cable would be reconnected. The last correspondence I received was that a contractor was supposed to have done it,” he said.
Last month, mayoral committee member for community services and health Patricia van der Ross, told the Echo that upon inspection of the Ocean View Civic Centre, it was discovered that there was a fault with an underground cable, which caused very low voltage.
City staff had kept Mr Kikillus informed and it had been agreed that the school would get a pre-paid meter to avoid any further electricity issues.
Mr Kikillus said he was happy to have a pre-paid meter, and Ms Van Der Ross said the City’s electricity department would install it. However, five weeks later, the school is still without electricity.
When the Echo followed up with Ms Van der Ross, she said, “Unfortunately the solution is more complex than might be thought.”
Everything was being done to get electricity to the preschool as soon as possible, she said.
Mr Kikillus said the container classrooms were very dark and cold now that colder weather had set in.
“We also have not been able to use our refrigerators or deep freeze, which is not ideal as we feed about 105 children twice a day.”
The school now had to use a gas stove, instead of an electric urn, to heat water, tripling its gas costs, and heavy rains last week had flooded the courtyard in ankle-deep water, he said.
“The children, many who don’t have decent shoes, had to spend the entire day in the cold dark containers.”
The City did not respond to further questions from the Echo about the “complex solution” by deadline.