Education Minister Angie Motshekga said the South African government will pool together funds to rebuild the schools. She said her department had not anticipated that 20 schools would be burnt down during a violent week-long protest in and around Vuwani, in the Vhembe district (no shit Sherlock – Ed).
She was speaking to the media ahead of tabling the department’s budget vote in parliament, on Tuesday when she said “the money was given to us … (before the schools were burnt down in Vuwani). We… as government are pooling different resources from the different departments”.
Meanwhile the Limpopo provincial government has confirmed Vuwani has been declared a disaster area by the district municipality. The announcement frees up additional funding that will allow officials to start rebuilding schools and provide mobile classrooms following the violent protests in the area.
A complete assessment of the damage to schools and infrastructure is still underway, and learning has come to a standstill in the region.
What do we know thus far? At leat 20 schools were burnt down, while four were damaged, while tribal offices, a satellite police station, and a Post Office were also torched. Vehicles were also damaged during a violent week-long protest in and around Vuwani.
The Minister now says her department had been given R22.528 billion for 2016. The money to rebuild the schools, she said, would not come from the department alone, saying that discussions — which include talks with National Treasury — are still taking place. She added that “we’ve asked the municipality to declare it as a disaster because it is a disaster”.
“There is no money … (for the Vuwani schools in this budget) … We just can’t afford even a cent from our budget. The province itself is just equally stretched, as a sector on our own we will not be able to carry the costs of repairing Vuwani.”
It is estimated that it will cost around R30 million to build one school. Not only bricks and mortar were lost; also books and computers.
An conservative figure the department is working on is that it will cost R200 million to repair school of which R45 million will be used for the deployment of mobile classrooms.
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