A contractor has blocked a sewerage pond at Max Makushe Secondary School in the Kavango East Region due to what they regard as outstanding payments by the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture.

The school has since suspended classes due to sewerage overflow.

The school has been struggling to get a permanent solution for the sewerage for almost five years.

The contractor, Empire Sense Investment, carried out what is referred to as emergency work for N$2 million.

The tender was awarded in November 2021.

A part payment of N$1.2 million was paid to the contractor in March 2022; while a balance of N$905,000 remained unpaid.

The outstanding amount led the contractor to take legal action to demand payment, and the outstanding payment was settled on March 22.

Despite the outstanding amount being paid, the contractor is now demanding a retention fee of N$110,893 to restore service at the school.

When approached for comment, the contractor refused to speak. 

According to the school's hostel superintendent, Munyoka Augustinus, they had to suspend classes due to health hazards. 

"That's why on Saturday we informed the parents and our learners that we were not going to resume normal classes this week because the learners were supposed to report on Monday and we were supposed to resume normal classes on Tuesday. But so far, we don't have learners; we only have the hostel staff, all institutional workers, and the teachers. You know there is a smell; normally, when you use the toilet, there is a backflow. Because the sewerage lines are full now, that means when you flush, it comes back, and when it comes back, it spills into the toilets, and then the smell comes in, and you know we have more than a thousand learners, and it affects them in terms of catching flu, diarrhoea, and other sickness."

Augustinus says that despite this problem having persisted for over five years, they never suspended classes.

"This is the worst sewerage overflow we have seen. Our institutional workers would have solved the problem if it was just a small blockage. We are even scared to operate our pumping machine since we have only one machine that is working. If you study it very well, it needs proper engineering to sort it out. Otherwise, it will still go for more than four or five years because, currently, we have only one machine that is pumping, and you know, sometimes it goes off and then down."

Augustinus says teachers are busy preparing extra-class programmes to cover the days that will be missed.

The school has 1,129 learners, of whom about 1,000 are hostel boarders.

Efforts to get comments from the Ministry of Education were in vain.