Rus-Ter-Vaal Secondary School was among the list of schools in the Gauteng province that were set to be eradicated due to deteriorating infrastructure resulting in learners and teaching staff being exposed to asbestos.
The school has since been deemed a serious health and safety hazard for both learners and teachers.
In 2018 the Gauteng Department of Education broke ground on the construction for a new school build for Rus-Ter-Vaal Secondary School in Vereeniging.
Four years later and the project that was supposed to be completed in February 2022 has since been abandoned and left incomplete by the construction company that was appointed to build the new school.
Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development MEC, Tasneem Motara explains that the department started to notice that the contractor was having cash flow problems and when trying to engage with the company they were not responding, forcing the department to terminate their contract.
“We are proceeding to blacklist the company, the company owners as well as a legal process to recover money that are outstanding, and that the department is liable for.” says Motara
By doing so the department is sending a strong message to the private sector who take advantage of the government, she adds.
Vaal community members and School Governing Body are outraged and have expressed that the department failed to communicate the challenges with them with regards to what was happening at the school and that the last communication they received was that learners would be moving to a new school in 2022.
“To say that we haven’t communicated with them would really be untrue” says Motara
She added that the department has communicated to the community and the school through various channels and several meetings were also held on site regarding the challenges that were faced.
Motara says the department is in the process of finding a completion contractor that can step in to complete the project.
