After spending a total of R49 million on the construction of the Baviaans Kouga Academy in Patensie, the learners, and staff at the newly built school have been left without electricity and water for over a month, since the Department of Education failed to pay their electricity account for months.
As previously reported by the Kouga Express, the school was built by the Department of Education as part of the National Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) and has been in the pipeline since May 2014 at an initial cost of R49 million. Construction of the school was completed in 2019, but the keys to the building were only handed over to the Education Department in March last year, once all contractors were paid and the electricity connection had been finalised.
The school opened its doors in December last year to more than 400 learners and 13 educators from four primary schools in the surrounding area, namely, De Mistkraal, Andrieskraal, Du Preez Primary and Cockscomb Primary. Despite millions of rands being spent on the construction of the school, in less than a year since it opened its doors, the learners and staff have faced many difficulties, which have negatively affected their ability to provide quality education to all at the school.
According to Kouga Municipality Speaker, Hattingh Bornman, the Department of Education did not pay the school’s electricity account for months and the school was therefore without electricity or water.
Bornman said he was only informed about the situation at the school on November 3, and therefore did not know where the learners were being taught or where they would be writing their final exams.
“The Department of Education needs to come to the party because they are not fulfilling their main priority, which is to pay the school’s electricity account,” said Bornman.
He said the municipality recently allowed the school’s staff to make use of the Andrieskraal Community Hall, next to the school, to print schoolwork for the learners.
“Unfortunately, the community hall is not big enough for the learners to be taught in or to write exams. The hall is mainly used for the teachers to print the necessary teaching material for the learners,” said Bornman.
Provincial Education Department spokesperson, Malibongwe Mtima, confirmed that the school had been without water and electricity since the start of the fourth term, which began on October 6.
Furthermore, he said, since the school used a water pump which needed electricity to operate, the school was also without water.
“Since the school has been without electricity and water, the learners and the staff have been using the water from the water tanks on the premises,” said Mtima.
He said when the keys of the school were handed over last year, the school already had a bill of R 45 000.
“We requested Eskom to review the bill, but they refused and as a result they cut the power,” said Mtima.
“The current arrears for the electricity account are almost R95 000.”
According to him, it was agreed that the school would use a nearby hall for the learners to write exams, while the teachers will only use the electricity for printing and copying papers for the learners.
Further questions about what the department is going to do to resolve the issue, were not responded to at the time of going to print.
