Nine classrooms at Riverlea school lost to overnight fire

An estimated 320 pupils have been affected by a fire that destroyed nine classrooms at Riverlea Secondary School in Johannesburg on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday morning, as classes resumed after the Easter break, they were relocated to the school hall where they will be taught until a more permanent solution can be found.

This is the third fire at the school. Classrooms were also damaged in April last year and in 2007.

Parent Maggie Govender called for more security measures around the school. “As the community, we can only do so much to protect the school. We don’t have the resources to constantly look after it. The crime rate in our community is very high but the culprits don’t get caught.”

Community policing forum representative Mongezi Hlahla said he had received a call from a patroller who noticed smoke coming from the school and alerted others. “I immediately rushed to the school and called the firefighters, however the fire had already done much damage.”

Hlahla added: “The school needs good security because it is surrounded by grass and trees making it difficult for us to identify the culprits — they hide behind them.”

Community leader Theo Doyle said the situation was frustrating and disappointing. “The same thing happened last year, but nothing has really been fixed except for a few temporary classrooms. The school is not safe. It has been neglected for a long time and needs urgent upgrades.”

Gauteng department of education spokesperson Steve Mabona said the department contributed four mobile classes after the fire last year. However, it is now experiencing budget constraints and money is tight.

“The department is already under pressure dealing with overcrowding and infrastructure backlogs across Gauteng,” he said.

Newly appointed Gauteng education MEC Lebogang Maile said the damage was estimated at R45m. He was hopeful that some of the damaged rooms could be repaired, instead of requiring mobile classrooms to be sent there.

He said the fire, based on a preliminary assessment, was believed to be an act of sabotage and criminality. This, added to reports of previous vandalism, was of concern, he added.

“It clearly shows that there is both a crime problem in the community and a security problem at the school that’s affecting the pupils,” he said.

Maile also raised concerns about some classrooms that were damaged years ago and had not been fixed, saying this had affected the school’s ability to operate at full capacity.

“The school is meant to take more than 1,000 pupils, but currently has far fewer, even though there is a shortage of school space in the province.

“Authorities will need to quickly act on this. Those responsible must be found and arrested.”

TimesLIVE