Note to editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbite by Bronwynn Engelbrecht MPL.
Thirteen years after the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) acknowledged that Ezibeleni School for Learners with Special Educational Needs in Katlehong is built on dangerous dolomitic ground, hundreds of Gauteng’s most vulnerable learners continue to attend school on this site deemed unsafe.
Despite years of warnings and promises to relocate the school, Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s government has failed to act, leaving learners with severe physical and intellectual disabilities exposed to unacceptable safety and health hazards.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will formally write to the Gauteng MEC for Education, Lebogang Maile, urging him to urgently provide a fully funded relocation plan for Ezibeleni School, together with clear implementation timelines. We will also table questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) requiring the MEC to account for the department’s continued inaction.
During an oversight inspection last Thursday, the DA witnessed first-hand the extent of the deterioration at the school. We observed extensive structural cracks inside the school’s dining hall, particularly around major load-bearing support columns. The dining hall is part of the same hostel complex that has already been closed due to severe structural damage related to dolomite instability.
Walking through the closed hostel was frightening. The cracks were so wide that I could place my entire hand and forearm inside them. In several areas, the concrete floors had lifted dramatically from below, resembling the aftermath of a volcanic eruption and showing visible signs of significant structural movement. Despite these conditions, more than 240 learners continue to use adjoining facilities every day.
Even more concerning is what lies beneath these buildings. Broken sewer pipes are exposed inside an open dolomite sinkhole, causing wastewater to pool around the ablution facilities and beneath the abandoned hostel buildings. This poses a serious public health risk to learners and staff while also accelerating ground instability and the prospect of further sinkhole formation.
See photos and video here, here, here, here, here, and here.
This latest oversight has revealed that prior DA recommendations regarding staffing shortages at the school remain unaddressed. Critical vacancies for therapists, specialist teachers, classroom assistants, nurses, and other support personnel remain frozen despite the growing needs of learners.
At a time when Gauteng faces exceptionally high unemployment among qualified educators, therapists and healthcare professionals, the continued freezing of these essential posts represents a failure both to support vulnerable learners and to create employment opportunities.
The DA condemns in the strongest terms the continued neglect of disabled learners at this school and calls for urgent action to relocate them to a safe learning environment, not more reports and assessments of the current school that is clearly unfit for purpose.
The DA is the only party committed to ensuring that learners with special educational needs receive the dignity and care they are entitled to. We will relocate Ezibeleni School to safe premises, fast-track the construction of a new purpose-built school, repair the failed sewerage system, fill critical support staff vacancies, and encourage transparency by empowering the school governing bodies (SGBs) to speak and keep parents fully informed.