Grades 8 and 9 pupils attending Hantam High School in Northern Cape will be forced to stay home for the rest of the month after complaints from parents that the buildings are unsafe.
Geoff van der Merwe, spokesperson for the provincial education department, confirmed to TimesLIVE Premium that 18 classrooms at the school in Calvinia are reported to have a “vibration”.
He said the classrooms will be cordoned off “until the necessary infrastructure work has been completed to safeguard the building”.
The school has been closed since Monday.
Two other schools, Kgomotso High School in Jan Kempdorp and Nico Bekker Primary School in Williston, have also been closed by parents since Monday because of overcrowding and electricity problems.
Northern Cape education MEC Zolile Monakali visited Hantam High and Nico Bekker Primary on Tuesday after complaints from parents.
TimesLIVE Premium established that the department of labour in the Northern Cape conducted an inspection of the school in October and declared certain sections of the building unsafe.
A structural engineer hired by the provincial education department recommended that for the building to be declared safe, steel props would have to be installed in the classrooms.
They were installed at the beginning of the year as a precautionary measure and pupils and teachers continued to use the classrooms until the end of June.
However, when schools reopened in July, parents expressed fears for their children’s safety and refused to send them back, which resulted in a meeting between parents and Monakali on July 21.
Reacting to the closure of the schools, Donne-lee Jano, an executive member of the Namakwa Civic Movement, wrote an open letter on Tuesday calling on government to act decisively in addressing “the dangerous and inadequate infrastructure”.
“The lack of empathy, care and urgency is astounding. We, as communities, can never allow government to delay fixing unsafe school infrastructure.”
He wrote that the norms and standards for public school infrastructure recognise that “safe and proper school infrastructure is a crucial part of ensuring quality education”.
“Why is the wellbeing of our pupils not a priority for the department? What must happen for the Northern Cape provincial government to treat these matters with the seriousness it deserves? A Hoërskool Driehoek tragedy?”
On February 1 2019, four pupils were killed and more than 20 injured when a concrete walkway collapsed at Hoërskool Driehoek in Gauteng.
A parent of pupils in grades 9 and 12 at Hantam High said, during Tuesday’s meeting with Monakali, they were told that only three classrooms were declared safe for use.
He said rotational classes will be held for grades 10 and 11, while grades 8 and 9 will remain at home.
Antonico Steenkamp, a DA councillor in the Karoo Hoogland municipality, said Nico Bekker Primary staff were forced to use a generator as their school had been without electricity since the end of March because of cable theft.
The closure of the school is devastating. Because of no electricity for four months, the children are behind with their work. Children couldn’t see the chalkboard in the mornings because it was dark.
— Antonico Steenkamp, Karoo Hoogland municipality DA councillor
The school also owed Eskom more than R70,000 for unpaid electricity bills.
Steenkamp said the school had been forced to use a small generator for which they were paying R400 a day for fuel.
“The closure of the school is devastating. Because of no electricity for four months, the children are behind with their work. Children couldn’t see the chalkboard in the mornings because it was dark.”
Van der Merwe confirmed the grades 8 and 9 at Hantam High will only return once all 14 mobile classrooms are delivered towards the end of the month.
Asked what provision would be made to cater for their educational needs while they were at home, he said they made arrangements with the district office.
“It forms part of the curriculum recovery plan to make up for the teaching and learning losses.”
Van der Merwe said the complaint about the “vibration” of the building was raised during a meeting with Monakali and the school community.
“The parents don’t want their children in the classes, though the department of labour indicated it’s safe.”
He said 406 grade 10 pupils at Kgomotso High School had to attend school on a rotational basis since January because of the shortage of classrooms.
“The delivery of four mobile classrooms on Wednesday will ensure that all grade 10 pupils will be able to attend school daily.”
He said the department had appointed a contractor to restore the electricity supply to Nico Bekker Primary School.
“We are settling their amount of R73,000 which is in arrears with Eskom and expect learning and teaching to start next week.”
The department of employment and labour in Northern Cape did not respond to media queries at the time of publication.
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