Johannesburg - Klipspruit residents have blocked the renovation of one of the schools claiming that they were not informed about the project.
On Friday, they picketed outside Klipspruit West Secondary school, halting its renovations. The renovation of the school is part of Gauteng’s project to renovate 13 schools in the south of Joburg at the cost of R270 million.
Salim Minaar, a resident who’s also a carpenter, said: “The problem with this project is the community members weren’t informed about it. The School Governing Body and most of the school officials kept it secret."
“So now this is what happened. It exploded this morning (Friday) when they put a halt to it and then they said that people from Eldorado Park and Chiawelo are not welcome to do this project,” said Minaar.
The community blames their councillor for what happened, saying he had failed to talk to them about the project.
Community representative and administrator of the ward councillor office in Klipspruit, Jacky Mthobeni told The Star that unfortunately, members of the Greater Eldorado Park Business Forum were the instigators of getting the community to halt all operations at the Klipspruit West Secondary School.
According to Mthobeni, the community was asking “why are Eldorado Park guys coming to intervene here? Why are the people at the school not looking out for the community?”
“Myself and my colleagues what we want is for the community to get jobs. The unemployment rate is very high,” Mthobeni said.
Representatives of the Greater Eldorado Park Business Forum told The Star they were there to ensure that when projects pick up in Eldorado Park and Klipspruit, contractors fulfil the requirements of their tender.
Klipspruit West Secondary school SGB deputy chairperson Henry Charles said they had written letters to the government asking for help which they had received. “They are the ones who introduced the contractor to us, which is why the community is unhappy,” said Charles.
Concrete palisades have been erected around the school.
The Star had since Friday called and sent messages to the councillor in order to get a comment but she has not responded.