By Angelique Serrao
More than 100 schools in Soweto have received no money from the department of education this year.
Parents on school governing bodies across Soweto have met The Star to show journalists the sad state of schools that have been waiting months for their subsidies.
The 106 schools are in poor areas where parents cannot pay school fees, and they are almost totally reliant on the subsidy they get from the department. The money is used for maintenance, electricity and water bills, stationery and textbooks.
Marks Ramasike, chairperson of the Association of School Governing Bodies in Soweto, said: "If there is no money coming, a school cannot function. We have no paper and no photocopier, and because this is the time of year when we have to place our order for textbooks, Grade 12s will have no study material." Electricity and water bills are mounting every month.
Ramasike said schools in the area received an annual subsidy of between R800 000 and R1-million for high schools and between R300 000 and R500 000 for primary schools. This means that up to R100-million has not gone out. The money was supposed to be transferred to school accounts at the beginning of May and is now up to six months late.
"What do they expect we are running schools on?" asked Themba Maqanda, a parent at Fontanus Secondary School. "What I want to know is: Where is that money? Where is it sitting? Something is suspicious here."
Parents said they had been in contact with the department of education for several months to ask where their money was.
"On September 3 the head of department, Mallele Petje, came to Soweto on a roadshow and promised that our money would be in our accounts by the end of September," said Ramasike.
Another angry parent, Isaac Ngwenya, said: "He was lying to us."
Ramasike said the delay in subsidies was nothing new. They had been fighting with the department since 2005, and the money was always paid by July.
"This is the worst we have ever experienced. The problem is that we have to fill in financial audit forms, and because the money will come so late, they will show that the school is making a profit because we haven't had the time to spend it," Ramasike said.
The biggest concern for the parents was the ordering of textbooks, which had to happen now if schools were to get them next year.
"Right now we have 35 kids in a class sharing one textbook," said Maqanda. "That situation is just going to get worse."
Gauteng department of education spokesperson Kate Bapela said the MEC knew about the problem in Soweto.
"We are aware of the hold-up, and the MEC has set up a task team to look into the matter," Bapela said.
She said the money was at Gauteng Shared Services, and they were working overtime to make sure it went out to the schools.
"We found that we have incorrect bank account numbers for some schools, and there seems to have been a delay in the system," Bapela said.
Democratic Alliance education MPL David Quail said that every year there was a delay in getting subsidies to schools.
"I have heard all sorts of excuses, from computer glitches to passing on the blame, but this just isn't acceptable," Quail said. "That is a lot of money and it could well be gaining interest somewhere.
"I think the whole thing needs an in-depth probe because you sometimes wonder whether there could be corruption involved."
While the problem is being sorted out, the children at Fontanus and other schools in Soweto have to deal with having no textbooks, leaking roofs and broken windows, as well as empty libraries.
"Somebody is killing these schools and we don't know why," said Linda Dube, deputy chairperson of the Association of School Governing Bodies.
"Parents are always blamed if something goes wrong. They ask where the parents are. We are saying 'Here we are'. We are standing together for our children and now we ask 'Why are you not helping our schools?' I think the department thinks we are illiterate and they take us for a ride, but in the end it is my child that suffers."