Gauteng school repairs cost over R87m

A block of classrooms at Kwadedangendlale Secondary School in Zola North, Soweto, has turned into a home for pigeons and smoking area for young boys.

Pupils had to be moved to mobile classes as the walls are not in a good condition with bricks falling off, and windows and doors are broken.

Kwadedangendlale Secondary School is among many of the schools that has been vandalised in Gauteng and it will cost the provincial department millions of rand to repair them.

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The department said it will cost taxpayers more than R87m to repair 381 vandalised schools in the province.

An official at the school said he was worried the amount was not enough to fix all the schools in the province.

“We have been experiencing this problem for over six years because people who built the school stole some of the building materials. There were people who were sent by the department to come and assess the damages and they said the school will need at least R32m for repairs. In the meantime, we have to do with the mobile classes which also don’t have enough space for social distancing,” he said.

An official at Nonto Primary School in Soweto said thieves stole all the burglar doors but the repairing process was almost complete.

He said there was a trend to attack schools during recess as a result of insufficient personnel at schools, lack of security cameras in township schools and mostly no-fee paying schools cannot afford to instal advanced security measures and are therefore are vulnerable to criminals.

“We have deployed 5,094 patrollers in 1,400 townships schools and also installed tracking device on the Led boards. More than 100 schools have been declared high risk, however as means of electronic safety measures, we have installed cameras and alarms in all full Information Communications Technology schools. We have linked the school with local SAPS and also link cameras with the department’s control room for monitoring".

Mosuwe said the budgets received are insufficient to respond to the ever-increasing maintenance demands and at the same time cater for new schools and additional learning spaces.

While presenting to the education portfolio committee, the department’s head of department Edward Mosuwe said in 312 of the 381 schools that were vandalised, repairs had been completed as the department appointed 362 contractors to fix the schools.

“There were 25 cases reported since schools closed in December and 137 of the 382 schools have been affected more than once. The department also has 10 projects that are under litigation affecting ability to conclude the projects,” Mosuwe said.