Thandi Nsibande could not hold back her joy when she saw her grandson, Nkululeko, walking into a refurbished Bramfischer Primary School in Soweto, a dream she never thought would come true.
Nsibande saw her three sons Sbu, Koketso and Phumlani, go through their primary school education at the same school but it was only made up of mobile classrooms.
Her children faced the cold winter days and the heat of summer in the mobile classes as she waited for government to build a proper school within walking distance from her home. But on Wednesday Nsibande was elated when Nkululeko walked into the newly built school his father Sbu had dreamed of.
For the first time in Bramfischerville, there is a formal primary school within walking distance from Nsibande’s home.
“It is beautiful. I never thought I’d see this day. My children, who are now adults, say they really wish they had gone to such a school beautiful,” she said.
The lack of a decent a primary school nearby forced Nsibande and other Bramfischerville residents to take action, and they embarked on a protest, demanding that government build a school for their children.
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“We did not do something violent. All we did was block the road leading to the old school with burning tyres, demanding a new school. We were really frustrated because children from our area had to go elsewhere to get an education and that had implications. Parents had to find transport, so we had to do something to show our unhappiness,” Nsibande said.
Bramfischer Primary has a modern design with 33 classes catering for grade R to 7. The no-fee school’s capacity is 1,120, but this week it had already admitted 1,200 pupils due to the high demand.
The school has a computer lab, library, hall, office block, home economics facility, a kitchen for preparing meals, specialised grade R classes, netball, dining hall and football court. The kitchen staff, which will prepare meals for the children, were already walking around in their uniforms getting ready for the day ahead.
“My sons envy my grandson. They say to me that they wish they had gone to a school with such great facilities,” Nsibande said.
There was still some work being done on the grounds and the hall, however, the school was opened as the rest of the facility had been completed.
Neliswa Khumalo brought her child to the school to start grade 1 and couldn’t stop taking pictures of her little one who was in the queue.
“The school is beautiful. It gives me confidence as a parent that my child will be attending school at a place with such good facilities. I am really happy with the kind of facilities that have been built for our children,” Khumalo said.
The Bramfischer Primary School cost R98.2m to build. It is one of the three schools that got a total facelift in Gauteng for the opening of the 2024 calendar year. The others are Mayibuye Primary in Midrand and Kgatoentle Secondary in Ga-Rankuwa.
While at Bramfischer Primary the school was buzzing with children in and outside the school premises, at Mayibuye Primary it was a different story.
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The Midrand school cost R63.8m and had many challenges. On the day of the school opening, construction workers were still working on site, fixing the road leading to the school and also within the premises.
Gauteng MEC of infrastructure development Lebogang Maile visited Mayibuye Primary on the day of the school opening to see how the project was going.
“There was a stoppage of work last year for a month but that was resolved and the contractor is here as you can see. We anticipate that work should be completed at the end of January. There are also factors like rain which delay the projects. If it rains you cannot work.
“This project was delayed by one month ... because there were problems with the community. Some of the issues are beyond us. That is why it is important for the community to co-operate with us and take ownership of the development projects. The community must also work with law enforcement agencies because you also have people who disrupt projects and create problems. When there are delays ... then people blame government,” Maile said.
He added that the children could not be allowed into the school as there is still some major work taking place which deals with water infrastructure, the hall and also the road leading into the school.
Less than 1km away from the new Mayibuye Primary, the old school with mobile classrooms started welcoming pupils for the 2024 calendar year.
“We are disappointed that the new school is not complete. We were really excited that our children were going to attend a school with good facilities, but here we are with the same old mobile classroom. The old school cannot accommodate a lot of children, so many parents from this area have to look for spaces elsewhere,” said one of the parents.
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