Francesca Villette
FOR hundreds of children living in Uitsig, near Bishop Lavis, the school is their only sanctuary from crime, drugs and gang activity that plague the suburb. And in the past, even their school was targeted by vandals and and thieves.
Tygersig Primary School had become a slum. Windows were broken by malicious trespassers, and desks and chairs were so old that they had become unusable.
Principal Hennie Windvogel said water that seeped through leaking roofs had made pupils ill, and the wind howling through smashed windows kept classrooms icy cold.
But all that changed yesterday as Deputy Minister of Basic Education Enver Surty handed over a new school to Windvogel and his 712 pupils as part of the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Development Initiative – an R8.2 billion project aimed at replacing 510 schools in the country that had been constructed with inappropriate material.
“Opening this new school is long overdue. I am very proud and privileged to see this happening. For the longest time, poor communities have not been at the receiving end of upliftment projects like this one,” Surty said.
The new Tygersig Primary School is built alongside the old school.
The new facility had cost R56 million and is equipped with a library and science lab – amenities which the old school never had.
Windvogel said the pupils, many of whom are the children of former pupils, deserved the best education the country had to offer.
“Our children have received a state-of-the-art building, with the best resources available. Finally they can enter a place that is conducive to learning.
“There is a park for them to play in, and they won’t freeze during winter as they did in the past. I am grateful to have been able to witness this during my lifetime,” he said.
It was proposed that the dilapidated building be demolished, but pupils of Uitsig High School pleaded with Surty to move them into the old school building.
Surty said he was in contact with district officials to propose moving the high school pupils.
Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said the community of Uitsig had been neglected by the provincial government for a long time.
From the outside, the dark grey Uitsig High School building looks in an even more dire state than the old primary school. Girls said the female toilets had no doors.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer’s spokeswoman, Jessica Shelver, said: “Mr Ehrenreich needs to substantiate his claims, although we don’t expect he will be able to.
“The district and Safe Schools have been working closely with the schools in Uitsig, and all roleplayers, to deal with the issues of gangsterism in the area and their impact on schools.”
She said the completion of two new schools was expected by 2018.
francesca.villette@inl.co.za