By Luvuyo Mjekula
The Hendrik Kanise Combined School saga in Alicedale is set to reach a boiling point after residents this week vowed to implement a total shutdown of the town on Monday.
This follows the residents’ frustration caused by protracted delays to a R150m project to rebuild a “dangerous” structure on the premises of Hendrik Kanise in the township of Nonzwakazi.
“We are continuing with our protest. There will be no school on Monday, 5 May, until we get the attention we need,” said an angry Nontobeko Gojela, one of 13 delegates who travelled to Bhisho last week to seek answers to the school’s plight.
The residents hired a taxi to Bhisho, hopeful they would receive assistance at the provincial headquarters from the Education member of the executive council (MEC), Fundile Gade or the head of department, Sharon Ann Maasdorp. However, many of them were unemployed parents who came back extremely disappointed.
Gojela said: “We could not get to the people we wanted, such as the MEC and the HOD. Instead, we got someone from customer care and returned with nothing tangible.”
Another delegate, Vuyokazi Ncula, said: “What is painful is that unemployed residents put money together to go to Bhisho. Instead of the government coming to us, it was we who went to the government, but we came back with nothing despite all our efforts.
“We went there to ask for help, to plead our case. We hoped that our children would go back to school after the holiday. But we have decided as parents that we are going to do a total shutdown.”
Since 2015, pupils at the school and their parents have hoped that the building would be rebuilt so that the children could learn in a safe environment, but they have had nothing to show for it.
The two-storey building has been declared hazardous to pupils, and the department of education has listed the school as one of its priorities in the 2023/24 financial year, according to Mbuyiselo Mayase, a district education official.
The school houses 584 pupils, from grade R to 12. The only other school in the town is George Jacques Primary. Despite its structural challenges, Hendrik Kanise achieved a 96% pass rate in the 2024 matric exams.
The prolonged delays in the implementation of the project have been attributed to complications between the department of education-appointed implementing agent, the Coega development corporation, and its chosen contractor, Amajuda Civils.
Coega has reportedly since parted ways with the company.
However, delays in appointing a new contractor so that work can begin continue to frustrate the residents who have resolved to close the school, a decision that badly impacts their children, particularly grade 12s.
With Grade 12 pupils falling behind in their studies, the community sought donations and assistance from local creches to temporarily accommodate the pupils temporarily.
At the bare minimum, the residents urgently want the dangerous derelict building barricaded to protect their children and for prefabricated classes to be built in the meantime. However, despite promises from officials to cordon off the building, nothing has come to fruition.
