Education ‘clueless’ on unused schools

EASTERN Cape education MEC Mandla Makupula does not know what the 726 schools that have been closed are being used for, nor does he know what the buildings are worth.

As if that were not enough, the department cannot provide details of how many of the buildings that are no longer used for educational purposes have been vandalised.

The department has also failed to hand over the buildings of the closed schools to the custodian of state property – the department of public works.

These shocking details were in the response Makupula gave DA’s Edmund van Vuuren in parliamentary questions.

Neither could Makupula for the exact period schools had been closed.

“There are a number of school facilities in the province that are no longer used for the purpose of education and the department is in the process of auditing these schools for possible re-use as part of rationalisation, or hand them over to the department of public works,” Makupula said.

“No extent of usage [of the closed school structures] is account the known, while some cases of vandalism have been reported.

“The overall cost of these [buildings] is not known as the condition assessment and related replacement values of these schools was established only in 2013-2015 and data beyond that timeframe is not available.”

It has since emerged that public works is also in the dark but has blamed the education department because they “never communicated their intentions or final decision to hand back closed schools,” then public works MEC Thandiswa Marawu said in a report.

Van Vuuren slammed Makupula’s department, saying its cluelessness was proof they did not care how taxpayers’ money was spent.

“The disregard by the ANCgovernment relating to millions of rands of unused assets is unacceptable,” he said.

“While the department of education is hell-bent on pushing its rationalisation programme onto communities, abandoned buildings worth millions are being stripped brick by brick instead of being used for other purposes.”

Provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima failed to respond to Dispatch questions. —