By Luvuyo Mjekula
Nearly 600 Hendrik Kanise Combined School learners are due to go back to school on Monday after the months-long boycott of the school by angry Alicedale community members was finally called off this week.
This comes after the community met with Department of Education officials on Wednesday and reached an agreement.
The officials reportedly assured the locals that work would start on the R150m project to rebuild the hazardous double-storey building on the school’s premises on 26 May.
Residents’ leader Khayalethu Nyamakazi told Grocott’s Mail on Thursday that the meeting was a success. “The attendance was awesome, and people behaved well except for just a few hiccups, which is not unusual in meetings of this magnitude.”
The department’s officials who met with the residents included Chief Director Mbulelo Mpupu, Grahamstown CMC head Mandisi Matyholo, Makana Circuit 1 and 2 managers Mbuyiselo Mayase and Dr Xolani Mayana, as well as Nolitha Masela from the infrastructure office. Hendrik Kanise principal Monde Myona joined them.
No official from the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) was present.
“It was maintained that the CDC, as an implementing agent, must be afforded the necessary opportunity to implement their plan, which is expected to commence this month,” Nyamakazi explained.
The first phase would entail properly barricading the building and putting up prefabricated classrooms. The second phase would follow thereafter.
The residents, including parents, also resolved to reopen the school, which they had closed to safeguard their children.
The residents had resorted to shutting the school down after numerous unsuccessful attempts to get construction off the ground. They even travelled to Bhisho recently, seeking MEC Fundile Gade’s intervention, to no avail.
However, this week, they gave the Department of Education and the CDC the benefit of the doubt, after their undertakings, and unanimously agreed to reopen the school.
They also decided to take matters into their own hands. Said Nyamakazi: “Since everybody was concerned about the wasted time due to the protests, it was decided that the dilapidating structure and the classes in front of it should be evacuated and temporarily barricaded with a fence.” He said the principal committed to providing unused classes to accommodate children from the evacuated building.
Nyamakazi confirmed that the residents’ strike action is suspended “to allow necessary processes to take place” These include pupils, especially matrics, who are preparing for their exams and for CDC to carry on with its plans.
Work on the project is expected to start on Monday, 26 May, when a new contractor will have been appointed, according to CDC.
A Department of Education delegation would visit Alicedale the next day.
They urged Coega not to disappoint them. “It’s not over yet, but we can safely say we are getting there. Meetings with the CDC, the Department of Education, the SGB, and stakeholders will continue to ensure that all is in order,” said Nyamakazi.
The residents thanked everyone who participated in their struggle, including Grocott’s Mail and the SABC for their coverage of the saga.
Department of Education spokesperson, Vuyiseka Mboxela, failed to respond to Grocott’s Mail’s questions regarding the stalled 10-year-old project.
The project entails demolishing a double-storey classroom building that used to house eight classrooms, the computer lab and the library.
The building was condemned because of defects, and the Department of Education had promised to demolish it and rebuild a structurally sound classroom block.
Before the residents kept the children away from the school, pupils were crowded into the remaining classrooms, with more than 60 learners in the grade four classroom, and more than 50 learners in the grade 10 classroom.
