NGQELENI – The founder and director of Ngqeleni Community Radio (NCR) in Ngqeleni, Vusumzi Yase, decided to stand up and try to come up with a solution to assist learners and staff from Ngqeleni Senior Secondary School after it was left without a proper administration block that was burnt to ashes in April 2018. Yase said he is a former student of this school.
He said NCR was approached to try to solve the issue of this school that was vandalised before COVID-19.
“We are here today to try to see how we can help the school in order for this block to work again. The school felt that they could speak to us and see where we can assist, and anyone who can assist is also welcome. Even the classrooms that are used are not proper because there are no windows or doors. We gathered the business owners so that we could see the damage and what we can do for the way forward. I can say we have already started because there is someone who has already said he can fix the roofing. We are now going to do an inspection so that we can see if this building is still usable, so that if it is, we continue with our plan,” said Yase.
He added that they are aiming to start immediately and continue until July 2027. According to one of the teachers who wanted to remain anonymous, the incident happened in April 2018. He said they were in their homes when they received a call from one of the members of the School Governing Body (SGB) informing them that the school was on fire.
He said it was too late for them to take action because it was on a Sunday evening. He added that on Monday morning they came to school and found the fire had already been extinguished.
“We were told that police officers found gas cylinders (big ones). We were told that they suspect the fire was caused by an explosion. Those cylinders belong to our school. Statements were taken by the police officers. Ever since then, we have never received any update about this case. All the important files and other things were destroyed by this fire. This is really affecting us because former learners come to ask for their old reports; we are unable to assist them because we do not have school records,” he said.
He added that their results were not good in 2018; learner numbers were dropping; in fact, the school was nearly closed by the Department of Education.
He said there was a year when the number of learners was below 250, and they had a fear that it would be closed.
“But we managed to improve. In 2022 we obtained 65%, in 2023 we obtained 84%, in 2024 we obtained 98%, and in 2025, 93%. This year, we were the best school in the Circuit Management Centre (CMC) of Ngqeleni, as we obtained 93% in the second quarter. Our target is 95%. We believe that we will achieve this percentage because our learners are very dedicated. We have trust in them. We have already implemented revision classes. We have stopped focusing on the normal timetable now because they will write trial exams soon.”
He said that, as a school, they are relieved to see the business owners willing to assist them in renovating their school. According to him, they had received many promises from people they do not know, but it is better now that this is coming from some of the business owners who were once students at this school.
The spokesperson for the Department of Education, Malibongwe Mtima, confirmed that the school was vandalised in 2018. He said five classrooms and the admin block were affected.
“The department provided the school with two new prefabs in 2023 so that the principal could use one as an admin block and the second one as a classroom.
“In 2022, there was someone who started renovating the classrooms as a donor, but because of politics, he abandoned the site. The school is categorised as an inappropriate school and is on our District Priority list,” said Mtima.
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