Lobby group gives state ultimatum

AN EASTERN Cape lobby group has threatened to take the government to court if it fails to commit within 10 days to building classes for an overcrowded school.

Grahamstown-based Legal Resource Centre (LRC) has given the state 10 days until December 5 to respond to their letter of demand.

LRC attorney Cameron McConnachie said on the weekend that the government had not yet responded to the letter, sent to the provincial and national education departments and the provincial department of public works.

Questions for comment and clarification sent to the provincial education department by the Dispatch as well as calls also went unanswered.

Public works provincial spokesman Sisanda George directed media queries to the education department, saying: “Education can say what is the future of that school. We’ve proactively assisted in that area. This not our place to respond.”

The possible fresh court action involves an Eastern Cape school which crams an average of 116 pupils in a class because of delays in the construction of new classes.

Meanwhile, school furniture rots outside.

Parents of Putuma Junior Secondary School, where 1 163 pupils squeeze into 11 classrooms, have been raising their plight with the department since the tenure of former education boss Modidima Mannya in 2012.

This week, the LRC, which has championed their cause to have at least temporary structures erected and enough furniture for the school, has tried to use the law to force government to continue work on the school.

McConnachie said after building materials were delivered to the school last year, work went slowly and then suddenly stopped.

“Six months later, the temporary, prefabricated materials have still not been completed. The foundation slab on which the classrooms will be placed has not been completed.”

McConnachie said workers arrived at 11am and left at 2pm, and sometimes were even off working on other projects.

Throughout this year the building materials were left outside at the mercy of the weather – and so were the 827 chairs and desks ordered by the Mthatha High Court to be delivered to the school.

“The delay has perpetuated the dire learning conditions at Putuma JSS, which puts the learners at risk, denies them the right to a basic education and runs contrary to the principles of equality enshrined in the constitution and the South African Schools Act,” McConnachie said. —