Twenty-three-year-old Lebogang Thabeng sits in his room, one of two built behind his grandparents’ four-roomed house in Mohlakeng. A bed takes up most of the room. On the bed are engineering textbooks. There is no table. He is a third-year student at Westcol FET college in Randfontein and is preparing to write his final exams at the end of February.
“I am forced to study here now,” he says, pointing at the bed. A prepaid electricity meter on the wall shows he has run out of power.
“I can’t afford to go to Randfontein and use the library there. I still can’t believe our community burned down our library,” he says, referring to protests two weeks ago in which Mohlakeng protesters burned down the municipal building, the maternity clinic and the library.
“The municipal building is next to the library and the fire spread. Most of us used to go to the study section of the library to prepare for exams because there is no space to work at home and it is hard to focus.”
Thabeng tells the Mail & Guardian that, even though the old library had only a few old encyclopaedias, it always had electricity and the youth could sit at tables and study.
READ MORE
Follow us on Facebook:
PEFM 87.6
Follow us on Twitter:
@PEFMnews
Listen to us on streaming internet radio at: Tunein and from our website at: PEFM
International Correspondent Scott Congdon can be reached at:
Mail: scottcpefm@gmail.com
Phone: 010 500 8203 (in South Africa) (Available 3-5pm SAST weekdays)
011 27 10 500 8203 (calling from outside of South Africa) (Available 3-5pm SAST weekdays)
*Note: Views expressed in the commentaries on this website are those of individual authors and not necessarily those of PEFM 87.6or our presenters or correspondents. Quotes are obviously the opinion of the source. A quote is just a quote and these are offered without comment. Use of a news story or commentary is not an endorsement of the source website.
© PEFM 87.6
No comments:
Post a Comment