NW schools still plagued by asbestos, Committee demands answers

The North West Legislature’s Committee on Education says it’s flabbergasted that there are still schools with asbestos infrastructure in the province. It is now over 14 years since the South African government banned the use of asbestos.

This was after it was scientifically proven that it causes a chronic lung disease called asbestosis. The committee has slammed the provincial Education Department over its failure to eradicate asbestos buildings at the Onkgopotse Tiro Comprehensive School in Klippan, following an oversight visit to the school.

The South African government banned asbestos in 2008 after scientific evidence showed that it makes people sick.

“We will know that the Department of Health has long ago discontinued, or it instructed that all government buildings that have asbestos roofing should be put down or that are structured in asbestos should be put down because they cause a disease called asbestosis. Now in Onkgopotse, the kids’ food is being cooked in a kitchen that still has that type of a roof,” says the chairperson for the North West Legislature’s Committee on Education, Priscilla Williams.

To date, some schools in rural North West still have asbestos structures. A situation that has left the provincial legislature’s committee on education stunned. The committee made a follow-up visit to the Onkgopotse Tiro Comprehensive School to, as Williams explains, to check if the department had kept its promise to remove the asbestos.

“On the commitment that the department had made with regards to dealing away with all the asbestos structures in the hall, the kitchen, the laundry, and some of the classes that are of asbestos buildings,” Williams adds.

The committee accused the North West Education Department of negligence after it failed to act on recommendations and commitments it made three years ago. According to Williams, they have shown a lack of commitment.

Mphata Molokwane, spokesperson for the provincial Education Department, says they had to stop the renovations at Onkgopotse Tiro Comprehensive School to make provision for the removal of the asbestos.

“Only phase one of the project was done, and phase two was not done because we have seen that these asbestos roofs are in the schools, since the Department of Health has indicated that asbestos is very dangerous to learners and teachers. So, we have decided that we have to stretch a bit the scope so that the contractor can be able to remove the whole school.” 

The Legislature’s Education Committee says it will compile a report and demand answers from the department over its failure to eliminate asbestos structures at the schools.

Reporting Thabang Morutloa