The Gauteng education department has suspended two inspectors who were assigned to manage a project to conduct repairs at Noordgesig Secondary School in Soweto after a fire there last year.
The inspectors from the department’s infrastructure unit were suspended on Wednesday, said spokesperson Steve Mabona.
“Following the fire ... the department had allocated funds for urgent repairs and reconstruction work.
“However, it is suspected that repairs might not have been completed, [and] some of the committed upgrades are suspected to have been partially done or not carried out at all,” Mabona said.
He said the department has launched an internal investigation to determine the facts surrounding the handling of the project and would announce the outcome once completed.
However, it is suspected that repairs might not have been completed, [and] some of the committed upgrades are suspected to have been partially done or not carried out at all
— Steve Mabona, spokesperson
In his reply to questions posed in the legislature last month by DA education spokesperson, Sergio Isa dos Santos, Chiloane said repairs were complete. He said plumbing, building and electrical work cost more than R2m.
However, when a Sowetan team visited the school, all that seemed to have been done by the company that was awarded the R2m tender to fix the school was to repaint walls and repair the ceiling for six classrooms that were affected by smoke when the school’s administration block caught fire.
The office block was so damaged that it had to be locked and has been unusable since the fire.
All its charred toilets were also broken, forcing teachers to use the learners’ bathrooms.
The plumbing was destroyed and had not been fixed despite Chiloane saying that the department spent about R320,000 on repairs.
The six classrooms for grade 12s, adjacent to the staffroom, were partially painted and their ceilings repaired, which was part of the R945,000 the province spent on building repairs.
Dos Santos said the party has reported Chiloane to the public protector for the “misleading assertion” that the school had been repaired.
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