Schools left to rot

Education facilities in Limpopo - including four schools - built at a cost of R143-million are standing empty and being vandalised despite a desperate need for proper infrastructure in the province.

The provincial department of education allocated R106-million for the construction of three circuit offices in 2012 - one in Bochum (R33-million), another in Tshipse (R45-million) and a third in Mapela (R28-million).

The offices were to double as teacher-training facilities. But the buildings are still empty and thieves have begun scavenging metal from them.

A new school for the blind in Mankweng, 40km outside Polokwane, is covered in weeds and vandals have broken doors and windows, and stripped the building of its fittings.

The school has 20 classrooms, two blocks of hostels, two residences, a kitchen and a dining hall. Building was completed in June, and pupils and teachers of Setotolwane School, which had been declared "unfit", were expected to move in.

"These learners and teachers have been promised this essential move for at least four years," said DA basic education spokesman Desiree van der Waltd.

She said the department had also abandoned two schools in Giyani, built for R25-million, and a primary school in Letaba was incomplete despite the contractor being paid more than R12-million .

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga told the National Assembly that "the professional service provider suspended its service [at Letaba] and brought a legal case against the department.

"The contractor cannot complete the work without support of a professional service provider. The litigation process is still under way."

Statistics SA released its Focus on Schooling in Limpopo report yesterday, showing that of the 154351 pupils who started school in 2001, only 53.4% wrote matric in 2013. Only 38.3% of them passed the National School Certificate.

"How do you deliver quality education that enables learners to finish school when facilities that are supposed to make that happen are abandoned?" DA spokesman in Limpopo Jacques Smalle said.

Until January, the provincial education department was being run by national government after being placed under administration.

The department has been plagued by problems over recent years. Last year, the SA Human Rights Commission ordered an investigation into sanitation in schools across Limpopo after a Grade R pupil fell into a pit toilet and died.

In 2012, the department was unable to provide textbooks on time. Deliveries were finally made after the department was taken to court.

Provincial department spokes-man Paena Galane failed to explain why the three circuit offices remained unoccupied.

He said the contractors were being probed by the Special Investigating Unit but would not provide details.

At the school for the blind, access points were not complete. They were considering moving the pupils to a Lephalale school.

Asked why the department abandoned the schools in Giyani, Galane said there were not enough teachers or pupils to occupy them.