Tree crushes classroom of Witbank playschool

A tree fell onto a playschool classroom and storage shed after a veld fire took place and hollowed the tree out, reports Witbank News.

The veld fire started on September 11 near the playschool.

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“The field fire lasted for two days and in the process, the tree got burned,” explained one of the teachers at the school.

“The principal went to look at the damage and she noticed the tree was hollowed out and completely unsupported.”

The principal phoned the local municipality multiple times on September 12, 13, and 14, but this yielded no results.

“The municipality failed to show up and as thought, the tree fell, destroying our storage shed and the roof of one of our classrooms.”

Witbank News contacted the eMalahleni Local Municipality, and according to municipal spokesperson Kingdom Mabuza, the land that burned does not belong to the municipality.

“The vacant land does not belong to the municipality; it belongs to the Mpumalanga Government. We received a call from the preschool on Friday and we dispatched a team to go and cut the tree. Unknown people burnt the tree and when we arrived it had already fell,” Mabuza concluded.

There were no injuries and all the pupils, as well as the teachers, are safe. The school was however closed on September 17, so that the tree could be removed.

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