Durban - More than a week after it was hit by devastating floods, Newcastle’s Qedizaba Primary School has yet to kick off clean up operations or get assistance from the education department.
KZN has been affected by catastrophic floods which damaged over 600 schools. According to the latest reports, at least 64 pupils have died and five children are still missing.
Qedizaba Primary School in Newcastle, Madadeni is one of the severely affected schools. Part of the school’s roof was blown away by heavy winds, furniture was damaged during the downpours and electricity installation and wiring was found damaged once the water subsided.
SGB member, Bheki Zwane raised concerns about learners attending classes in unfavourable conditions which may put their lives in danger.
He revealed that the school’s principal almost got electrocuted when the electricity meter burst into flames just after the floods.
“When the incident happened we called Eskom and when they were trying to fix the meter it busted again, they then decided to shut it down. It has been almost three weeks since the school is without electricity and teachers are unable to provide students with the quality education they deserve,” Zwane said.
He added that the education department is aware of all the challenges the school is facing, but nothing has been done.
“The infrastructure problems which have became worse have been there even before the floods and we did report to the department. They only sent a service provider which only delivered frame structure to put mobile classrooms and now it’s been almost six weeks since we last saw them. The frame structure in the school premises is also posing a danger to learners’ lives,” said Zwane.
When contacted by IOL, the provincial education department was unavailable to respond.
IOL