Note to editors: Please find the attached English soundbite by Sergio Isa Dos Santos MPL.
The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) pressure has forced the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) to suspend two officials following our exposure of misleading claims regarding completed repair work at Noordgesig Secondary School in Soweto.
This decision comes a few days after the DA Gauteng reported the matter to the Public Protector to launch an investigation into the Gauteng Department of Education MEC Matome Chiloane’s written reply indicating that all repairs at the school were completed. The department stated that R2 065 517.14 was spent, yet key parts of the school remain not fixed and unusable.
The GDE’s recently released statement concedes that repairs were either incomplete or not carried out at all despite over R2 million spent. The GDE’s decision to tell the truth is a direct result of the DA’s oversight, fact-checking and public accountability work. Without the DA’s intervention, this matter would have been swept under the rug while learners and teachers continued to bear the brunt of the department’s failure.
This scandal reflects the systematic failures in infrastructure project management under Premier Lesufi’s administration. While we welcome the GDE’s action and feeble attempt to save face, Premier Lesufi and MEC Chiloane must answer why it took nearly a year and an investigation by the DA to acknowledge that repairs were not completed.
A DA-led Gauteng Provincial Government would ensure that all school infrastructure repairs, upgrades, and maintenance are completed within the stipulated budget and timelines and to the required standard. We will also ensure that no school infrastructure project is signed off until all repairs, upgrades, and maintenance have been fully completed.
The DA will continue to follow this investigation closely and ensure that the outcomes are made public. All those responsible must be held accountable.