No help for sinkhole school’s learners
Learners of Relebogile Secondary School still have no proper schooling after a contractor of the Gauteng Department of Education failed to deliver on its promises.
The learners have had to make do with a few hours of schooling every week at Khutsong South Primary School after a sinkhole caved in under Relebogile on 9 February. Only matric learners get daily classes and only attend from 12:30 to 16:30 on weekdays.
The learners were gutted when they returned for the second term last Wednesday and found the department had not delivered on its promise to erect enough prefabricated classrooms for all the learners to attend school daily.
The contractor erected 18 classrooms on the open ground opposite Relebogile within a week before the school holiday started but did nothing during the break.
“The Department promised 47 classrooms when the learners returned from holiday. No one can say why it never happened,” says Mr Fanie Mannapula, the chairperson of the task team formed to help the school after the sinkhole caved in.
Relebogile’s learners, led by members of Cosas (Congress of South African Students) and the schools RCL (Representative Council of Learners), marched to the two other high schools in Khutsong, Badirile and Tswasongu, from Wednesday to Friday to garner support from the other learners. Therefore, schooling at the other schools was also
interrupted.
Because of this combined protest, the contractor arrived with materials for 10 classrooms on Thursday. By the time the newspaper went to print, these had been erected. However, there were still not enough classrooms for all the learners, and it was unclear how they would be accommodated. There are also no toilets for the 1,578 learners.
Although the Herald questioned the department’s spokesperson, Mr Steve Mabona, it had received no answers by the time of print.
