KZN Premier assesses school that was damaged in 2022 and not repaired

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli has expressed disappointment that the Thandukwazi Primary School in KwaMashu, in the north of Durban, still has damage dating back to the 2022 floods.

The school is among about 200 that were damaged by strong winds, in the past week.

The Premier’s visit to the school was aimed at assessing the extent of the damaged caused by the strong cold front that hit the province.

The latest damage further disrupted teaching and learning in some of schools.

Ntuli says they are working to ensure schooling is restored, including those no-fee schools that have not received their full government subsidies.

“I’m engaging the Department of Education, even on the norms and standards issue, which I’m saying I wasn’t aware of this situation and that it was this bad. I’ve intervened. We’re able to secure some funding and all schools are going to be paid in fact from next week. Not in two weeks,” says Ntuli.

He says as from next week they will be beginning to pay schools.

“In two weeks’ time no school must be owed and going forward I said for norms and standard, the government must not owe schools a single cent,” adds Ntuli.

He says that going forward there is a plan.

“I have a report of 208 schools. I want to see the plan as to how that will be addressed,” he says.

Ntuli says he will investigate what caused the delay in fixing Thandukwazi Primary School.  The roofs of three classrooms were blown off

“I’m disappointed that there’s such old damage that has not been fixed and has resulted in the learners being squashed in to other classrooms. Now they are going to fix this problem. I want them to fix it and I will be doing a follow-up on whether the problem is fixed timeously so that teaching and learning will be normal in this school,” adds Ntuli.

“But for such a level of damage that affects teaching and learning something should have been done,” he adds.