R300m special needs school abandoned by Gauteng Education Department

1 March 2018

It is shameful that a state of the art school with much needed facilities is standing empty while under-equipped schools are severely overcrowded and cannot adequately meet the needs of learners.

During the DA’s visit to the newly built Nokuthula LSEN School in Lyndhurst, Johannesburg today, we were shocked to see that there are no learners, no teaching and no learning taking place as the school stands empty.

The purpose of the visit was to inspect whether the school is operational and to assess the progress of learning and teaching at this school.

This school was officially opened in October last year by the Gauteng Premier, David Makhura, Gauteng Department of Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi and the MEC for Infrastructure Development, Jacob Mamabolo and to date it is still not operational.

This school hosted the announcement of the Gauteng 2017 Matric results in January and we were given the impression that it would be operational at the beginning of the 2018 academic year but this never happened.

The school cost the Department R300 million, it has all the needed facilities including soccer, netball, rugby, volleyball fields and basketball and tennis courts. It also has an indoor swimming pool; however, it is disappointing that none of our learners are benefiting from this investment.

The Department has neglected this quality facility by not providing any maintenance; the grass is long with weeds all over the pavements.

We have been informed that the Department is awaiting an occupational certificate from the City of Joburg. This confirms that the Department builds schools without a proper plan in place and does not comply with the standard norms and rules.

This Department lacks proper planning and a cohesive strategy.

The same with Durban Deep Primary School in Roodepoort - this school was forced to shut down at the beginning of the year as the Department failed to pay for water and electricity connections from the City of Joburg.

The beneficiaries of this new school are still cramped in an unsafe warehouse in Marlboro while waiting to be relocated to this new school in Lyndhurst.

The Department is denying our learners, who are so desperately in need of this facility, an opportunity of a lifetime.

The DA demands that the old Nokuthula LSEN School in Marlboro be relocated to the new school with immediate effect.

We have engaged the both MEC Lesufi and City of Joburg to urgently attend to this matter. The City is waiting for GDE to submit rezoning and application for occupation certificate. The delay to utilize the state of art facility is with the MEC’s office.

Issued by Khume Ramulifho, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, 1 March 2018