Anger over revamp delay at schools

ABOUT 25 schools in Gauteng still have asbestos roof seven years after Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga signed regulations stipulating the minimum infrastructure norms and standards for all schools across the country.

Motshekga, who signed regulations in November 2013, set a deadline for November 2016, for all schools made of inappropriate material such as mud, wood, metal or asbestos, to be revamped.

About 29 schools in the province were at the time said to have structures with a predominance of asbestos. The provincial Education Department has renewed only four schools, to date.

The sluggish movement saw the DA’s spokesperson on education, Khume Ramulifho, accusing Gauteng MEC Panyaza Lesufi of not being serious about eradicating asbestos in the schools within the province.

“A budget of R38811000 has been allocated in this current financial year to replace 25 schools built predominantly of asbestos. Of these 25 asbestos schools identified, only two are in the construction phase while ten are in the feasibility stage. Six schools are in the inception stage, two are in the concept stage, and three are in the design stage while one school is in the tender preparation stage and another one is in the retention stage.”

Among the 25 asbestos schools were Kliptown Primary School and EW Hobbs Primary School, as well as Nancefield Primary School which is currently under construction.

A school official at Kliptown Primary said nothing had happened over the years.

His sentiments were echoed by another official at EW Hobbs, who said that there have been three different contractors over the years but nothing materialised.

In Nancefield, learners were allocated mobile classrooms as the construction to rebuild the school is currently under way.

However, angry parents said the process had taken longer than expected.

Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development and Property Management spokesperson Bongiwe Gambu said, in Nancefield, completion was expected in October this year.

“There have been delays caused by the late issuing of work permits at the start of the project, the national lockdown last year due to Covid pandemic and currently the availability of steel used to produce roof covering countrywide. Another delay has been ongoing community unrest in the area affecting this and other projects,” Gambu said.

Gauteng Education spokesperson Steve Mabona said for the last few years, his department managed to eradicate asbestos in schools such as Oosrand Secondary, Everest Primary, Noordgesig Primary and Paul Mosaka Primary.

“Thus far, the department has set aside more than R473m to eliminate the remaining asbestos schools while awaiting more funds from the private market. This year alone, the department had to accommodate more than 102 000 new learners who migrated to our province, thus affecting our infrastructure expansion plans,” said Mabona.

SA Medical Association health policy analyst Shelley McGee said there was very little evidence to indicate that the mere presence of asbestos in building panels holds any danger to anyone.

She said, however, where panels are broken or there is any intervention such as drilling or destruction, the asbestos-containing building parts can release asbestos dust into the air.

“This is a problem where buildings are old, as many of the old schools now are. When tiny asbestos is inhaled into the lungs it can cause respiratory diseases. People who are exposed to asbestos fibres can develop lung diseases such as asbestosis which is an inflammatory condition affecting the lungs, as well lung cancers, most commonly a condition called mesothelioma,” said McGee.