DURBAN - KWAZULU-NATAL Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu says the department is facing infrastructure challenges at several schools in the province.
Mshengu was speaking during a virtual meeting on infrastructure yesterday which was attended by representatives of all nine provinces and was led by the Department of Basic Education.
He said the budget cuts had made a bad situation worse.
Mshengu also touched on water challenges. He said about 3 000 schools of its 6 200 were not connected to municipal water lines, and the department had to provide water via water tankers.
He said this was not sustainable. “We have been paying millions of rand for water to be delivered in tankers, we are now looking to drill boreholes which could have huge savings.
“Before Covid-19, a school could survive for a day without water, and the community would not even make any noise about it as there would also be no water in the community; now, that cannot happen. We have to make sure there is water every day.”
A report by the department on the infrastructure programme under way showed that 1 158 boreholes must be built; 133 had been completed, 551 were in the construction phase, the contracts for 196 had been awarded, 185 were at the tender stage, 62 were at the design stage and 31 were in the planning stage.
On the eradication of pit latrines, 454 had been completed, 502 projects were under construction, 159 were at the tender stage and 209 were at the design stage.
On the eradication of asbestos, the department has identified 908 schools in different districts with asbestos sheeting. The department said schools built by communities made up a large portion of that number. About 400 of these schools would be addressing this during the current financial year.
In addition, about 11 schools are to be built.
DA Education spokesperson Dr Imran Keeka said the department was faced with daunting infrastructure challenges and the DA have always called for a more sound approach.
He said the department should focus on improving and maintaining the infrastructure already in place.
THE MERCURY