About 800 schools in KwaZulu-Natal still have asbestos roofing, said the MEC of Education in KwaZulu-Natal, Mthandeni Dlungwane.
The asbestos problem is among a number of infrastructure challenges the department faces.
“An audit has shown that at least 800 schools still have asbestos roofing and the removal of this is being prioritised as it poses a health risk to our learners,” said Dlungwane during his budget speech at the provincial legislature on Thursday afternoon.
Asbestos has been banned in South Africa. A report published by the National Institute for Occupational Health stated that asbestos was a serious health hazard which caused many deaths every year globally.
Dlungwane spoke about continued budgetary pressures and the department’s hefty wage bill.
He told members of the legislature, “infrastructure development continues to experience budget cuts since 2014/15 due to compensation of employees. This creates an unhealthy reliance on the conditional grants which always come with their own priorities and conditions.”
Highlighting the issue of infrastructure, Dlungwane said in March they visited Dingulwazi School in Pongola, in Zululand. They observed a serious shortage of classrooms. The school has an enrolment of more than 1700 pupils and some classrooms have to accommodate 120 pupils each.
The MEC said adding further strain to their budget, was the unpredictable weather which caused damage to infrastructure, forcing the department to channel funds towards repairs. He said in the 2016/17 financial year 354 schools were damaged by storms which cost the department around R262 million to repair.
Dlungwane said despite the challenges the department had been able to invest in building several schools.
ANC MP Zibuse Mlaba said the province needed a co-ordinated strategy to deal with infrastructure problems, saying it could not rely solely on conditional grants and there were still issues with overcrowding in schools.