On Tuesday, Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, visited some of the Durban schools which were affected by the recent floods.
Her first stop was at Brettenwood High School, in Umbilo, to assess the extent of damage suffered by the school. In her media address, Minister Motshekga said the Department will do its best to get the school fully functional. “For now we are assessing what the damages are, what is possible under the circumstances and what we need to do where we are unable to really send kids back to school for normal learning,” she said. In Sydenham, Spearman Primary School has been left fully exposed following the collapse of the brick fence as a result of the floods. The school’s principal, staff and governing body have appealed to the community to assist with the erection of a temporary fence as the broken one poses a danger to the learners and staff. SGB Chairperson, Natalie Bazley, said the damage to the wall was reported to the departments of Education and Publics Works, who did come to the school to inspect the damage, however, she feels that like all other government processes, repairs of the wall will only be implemented after a while. “We did bring the matter to the attention to the Ward 31 Councillor, Remona McKenzie, who came to assess the damage, however, made no promises. We then approached Councillor Imtiaz Syed, president of Active Citizens Coalition (ACC) for assistance, hoping that he and his team would come up with a solution. Mohammed Ismail, PR Councillor for the ACC, came to assess the damage and suggested that a wire fence be put up while we wait for assistance from the departments,” said Bazley.
She said that after having lost one of their learners in the floods, they would not want to risk losing another as a result of the damaged fence and any assistance towards the repairs of the fence will be highly appreciated as the damaged area is currently cordoned off with yellow tape so the learners do not go near it. “We are appealing to local businesses and organisations for assistance in repairing the fence. Some of the other damages caused by the heavy rain are under control, like the flooding of classrooms which was cleared by the school principal and a team she hired, spending two nights at the school sweeping out water from the classrooms, which is highly appreciated by members of the SGB. We would also like to thank the neighbours who came out and assisted in the cleaning of the classrooms before the learners returned to school on Tuesday. All your efforts will not go unnoticed,” said Bazley.
Mohammed Ismail, PR Councillor for Active Citizens Coalition, said: “When I did an oversight to the school to assess the damage, it came to my attention that the school is in dire need of assistance. I was shocked to see the devastation as large portions of the fence on both sides of the school were completely damaged, exposing the school, also posing a danger for learners and educators alike. We appeal to the community to assist, in any way possible, with makeshift fencing to erect until the department assists them at some point. We hope they do get assistance as soon as possible because this school does not have the financial capacity to rebuild as quickly as others can.” KZN Education MEC, Kwazi Mshengu, said 124 schools were extensively damaged and would require a huge amount of money to get up and running again. “The preliminary figure currently stands at R442 million and that is for infrastructure. We are quantifying those figures now, but definitely they will go up,” said MEC Mshengu. The Department confirmed that over 600 schools in the province were affected with 101 left inaccessible and 124 experiencing extensive damage. Fifty-seven learners were confirmed to be deceased while five were still missing. An educator and food handler also lost their lives in the devastating floods.
