Note to editors: Please find attached English soundbite by Sergio Isa Dos Santos MPL.
Hundreds of learners at Randfontein Secondary School and Toekomsrus Primary School in Toekomsrus, Rand West City Local Municipality, are still forced to attend classes in ageing asbestos structures that pose serious health risks, while teachers continue to work in unsafe environments that compromise their safety and dignity, despite the Gauteng Provincial Government’s (GPG) long-standing promise to replace asbestos schools with safe and modern infrastructure.
During a recent sitting of the Gauteng Legislature, MEC for Infrastructure Development and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Jacob Mamabolo, failed to give a clear answer to the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) oral question on why the GPG has still not eradicated asbestos infrastructure years after missing the deadlines set out in the 2013 Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure. Instead, he repeated the government’s hollow commitment to asbestos eradication, with no clear timeline or end in sight.
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) previously allocated approximately R112 million for rehabilitation and asbestos-related infrastructure upgrades at Randfontein Secondary School. Yet despite this significant investment, a recent DA oversight inspection found that critical safety hazards remain unresolved, including an incomplete administration block, unfinished bathrooms, falling ceiling panels, and staircases missing safety bars, all of which continue to place learners and staff at risk.
Shockingly, the department’s so-called intervention in this school seems to have involved building brick-and-mortar structures around existing asbestos classrooms rather than completely removing them. Most of these structures have since deteriorated or collapsed, exposing learners and educators to cracked and broken asbestos panels. The situation is further worsened by severe overcrowding at the school, with Grade 8 classes recording learner-to-teacher ratios of 1:50 and Grade 11 classes reaching as high as 1:73.
See photos here, here, here and here.
Meanwhile, asbestos infrastructure remains in place at Toekomsrus Primary School and requires urgent replacement. Some of the school’s mobile classrooms are more than 30 years old and need to be removed, while the roof blocks are in dire need of maintenance. Although the department assessed the school two years ago, no work has been carried out.
See photos here, here, here and here.
It is outrageous that the GPG continues to drag its feet on eradicating asbestos schools despite the well-known deadly health risks linked to asbestos exposure. The question that must be asked is: how many more lives must be placed at risk before this government acts decisively to remove asbestos from Gauteng schools once and for all?
The DA will escalate the issue to Premier Panyaza Lesufi for urgent intervention. Those responsible for these unacceptable delays must be held accountable for continuing to hold learners and educator’s hostage in unsafe and undignified conditions.
The DA has proven that, where it governs, complete eradication of asbestos in schools is prioritised. When we govern Gauteng, we will not simply talk about change but deliver safe, properly built schools that protect the health, dignity, and future of learners and educators, rather than confine them to crumbling asbestos infrastructure.