Some residents of Dinokana near Zeerust in the North West have closed the Bosugakobo Primary School because the building is unsafe and are demanding that the authorities provide mobile classrooms.
The school hasn’t reopened for the third term on Tuesday and the parents have also stopped the contractor who is refurbishing in a R22 million building contract that should have been completed in 2017.
Community leader, Patrick Merementsi, said they decided to close the school after the Department of Education failed to intervene.
“A contractor is using old building materials instead of using new materials. When we ask them they say they don’t have money. We have since called the Provincial Department of Education to raise our concerns about the steel and the structural timber that is old and used by the contractor.
“A whole block of classrooms does not have a roof on it currently, while the contract was supposed to be completed in 2017. As the community and parents, we have decided that our kids should stay home until this issue of infrastructure is concluded.
“The safety of our children comes first. We know that this may affect their learning but we don’t have a choice. All we want is for the department to come here and provide the school with mobile classrooms while they attend to the issue of this contractor,” Merementsi said.
The department is yet to respond to our inquiries regarding the matter.
