As corruption reared its ugly head resulting in an R82m school in an unoccupiable condition, thousands of poor black pupils are left learning under unfavourable conditions.
In yesterday's edition, we reported on 1,900 children from Mayibuye Primary School in Midrand who are attending school in dilapidated prefab classrooms as their new state-of-the-art school stands empty nearby.
The facility could not start operating as a certificate of occupancy was not granted due to the site it is built on being waterlogged, its building plans were not approved by the City of Johannesburg and that led to a breach of national building regulations.
This has led to the portfolio committee on infrastructure chairperson Mpho Modise to call for heads to roll. “It appears to be a case of profit being placed before the interest and lives of learners and educators and this should have never been allowed to happen. Greed and profitmaking seem to be at the centre of the reckless decision to continue construction while there were indications of the dangers of such actions,” Modise said.
We agree with Modise, officials involved in the approval of the contract must be criminally charged. It does not make sense how construction of such a huge project would go on without any inspections and approvals unless money exchanged hands for people to look the other way.
How come no inspectors picked up the water problem on the site? How is it possible that this building was built from foundation level until completion without the experts raising the danger posed by the water issue?
Our government officials clearly do not care about the public they are employed to serve, they are only interested in lining their pockets. The injustice to the children who are being taught in overcrowded old buildings is a violation of their right to education.
Every time greed takes over a public project and the money gets squandered, the poor who the services or the infrastructure were meant for always lose out. It is heartbreaking that these children will continue to learn under bad conditions while the department investigates what happened.
We call on the department to suspend officials who worked on the project and recoup money from the construction company involved as it is unlikely it was not involved in whatever wrongdoing happened.
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