Damaged admin block poses danger to pupils – SGB

One of the school administration blocks that was damaged by fire is falling off brick by brick and poses a danger to pupils returning this morning.

Phuthanang Primary School in Soshanguve, northern Pretoria, is one of the three schools which were torched just a few days apart in 2020 during the hard lockdown.

Yesterday, as the school was preparing to start the 2022 academic year, its admin block, which has been cordoned off by a fence, has become a headache to the school governing body (SGB), teachers and parents.

The structure is literally falling apart, sparking fears that the entire block could fall over anytime.

When Sowetan visited the school yesterday, several bricks had just fallen off the structure ravaged by fire while inside there’s a rat infestation which has been allowed to thrive.

Chair of the SGB, Kgaugelo Mohlala, said the structure was giving them sleepless nights.

“It’s more than a year since this building was gutted by fire and has become a danger to children, hence as parents we want to demolish it once and for all,” Mohlala said.

She said they have written to the Gauteng department of education on numerous occasions enquiring about demolishing the structure which accommodated staff rooms and the principal’s office.

“Soon we may have an incident in which bricks or the structure could fall on a kid but our challenge is that this property belongs to the department, so we have to wait for a go-ahead from them before we could demolish it,” Mohlala said.

“This structure could fall off any time… now it has brought us a big rat problem as well and these rats go into classrooms as well.”

The principal’s office is now housed in a temporary prefab structure erected at the school.

“We are ready for the reopening of schools, so are the teachers and the parents,” Mohlala said.

Two blocks of mobile classes have been erected at the school, giving teachers space for additional classes.

Mohlala said the only setback being experienced at the school was registration due to challenges experienced by parents who registered online.

At Soshanguve High, which also saw its administration block being destroyed by fire, it was business as usual with parents lining up to register their children.

A teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Sowetan that they were already used to working in a small congested space since their administration block was damaged.

“But we are ready for the reopening of schools, and we are happy that a contractor has been appointed to rebuild our administration block,” the teacher said.

The school also had a block made up of temporary classrooms which it had been using since the fire incident.