Nokuthula LSEN still not fully functional despite MEC Motara’s proclamation that the school can be fully utilised

Issued by Khume Ramulifho MPL – DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education
22 Oct 2020 in Press Statements

Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng conducted an oversight inspection at Nokuthula LSEN School in Lyndhurst and we were disappointed to discover that the school is still not being fully utilised despite that the Gauteng Infrastructure Development MEC, Tasneem Motara stating that all facilities at the school are open and can be fully utilised.

MEC Motara was responding to my oral questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) on Tuesday.

During the oversight inspection at the school we also discovered that the school is still operating on a temporary occupational certificate hence it is still not being fully occupied.

The school can only be fully occupied once it have been issued with a permanent occupational certificate.

This means that the dormitories are still not being utilised and learners are forced to commute everyday to school.

This clearly indicates that MEC Motara misled the House by stating that all facilities at the school are open and can be fully utilised.

The permanent occupational certificate will only be issued once all outstanding matters relating to site development and building plans have been addressed.

The DA calls on MEC Motara to provide a timeframe as to when the defects at the school will be fixed as the department has set aside a budget of R2,5 million.

The R300 million state-of-the-art school is not in a good state , the fascia boards have fallen out , there are roof leakages which are affecting the ceiling and the walls and the hydrotherapy room is non functional.

We will continue to monitor the progress with regards to the fixing of these defects to ensure that the school complies with the standard building regulations and can be issued with a permanent occupational certificate.

The DA further calls on the Department of Education to take over control of its entire budget as the Department of Infrastructure Development (DID) is incapable of building proper schools.