A team of infrastructure experts dispatched by the North West Department of Education to two schools engulfed by fire over the weekend near Rustenburg will soon provide a comprehensive report to quantify the extent of the damage to the affected schools.
In the first incident, a fire destroyed the school hall at Matlhare Mokautu Secondary School in Monakato Township on Friday, while another blaze gutted a block of five workshops and a storeroom at Sewagodimo Technical School in Pella Village on Sunday.
Speaking on YOU FM Newshour, the Director of Communications at the Department, Dr Elias Malindi, revealed that both the MEC, Dr Desbo Mohono, and the Head of the Department, Lengane Bogatsu, accompanied the team when they visited the affected schools on Monday.
“The infrastructure experts are still assessing the extent of the damage to the affected schools because, as you would understand, after an assessment is conducted, a comprehensive report will be consolidated to indicate the preliminary findings concerning the financial cost and structural integrity of the remaining buildings. The Department is yet to receive such a report because the team is still hard at work,” said Malindi.
He also highlighted that both incidents would have little to no impact on the preliminary examinations, which are scheduled to begin on Thursday.
“It is heart-breaking and a serious setback because our learners who are doing technical subjects at Sewagodimo suffered the biggest loss of their infrastructure, and so it will be hard on them. As you can imagine, those workshops contained serious heavy machinery and equipment which took a long time to put together, and losing them like this is devastating, to say the least,” explained Malindi.
Malindi said that although the incidents happened in two different villages within the Bojanala Platinum District, 48 hours apart, they were unable to determine whether they were connected.
“I’m unfortunately unable to indicate otherwise until we receive a conclusive report from the police, who are investigating these fire incidents,” he remarked.
In addition, Malindi urged community members with information to assist the police in investigating possible cases of arson.
“We call on anyone who can provide such information to the police because this is a real loss at these two schools. We would want to know what sparked the fires at the schools,” pleaded Malindi.
Meanwhile, MEC Dr Desbo Mohono strongly condemned the two incidents.
“In my first meeting with the senior managers of the Department, they reported the Department’s backlog in the provision of school infrastructure across the province. The burning of the school hall seriously undermines the progress we are making in delivering much-needed school infrastructure. I strongly condemn such incidents at our schools and call on the South African Police Service to get to the bottom of this matter and ensure that those responsible face the full might of the law,” said Dr Mohono.
