The Port Elizabeth daily newspaper The Herald reports Govan Mbeki township residents used wheelbarrows, cars, vans and even their heads to transport items from the school. The school near Bethelsdorp is now merely a shell. Gqebera High School, which cost R40-million to build, went from eight buildings to only support beams, with residents carrying off bricks and tiles bit by bit to add to their own homes or sell.
And although it is one of six in the city which have been left abandoned, the provincial Education Department says it is only aware of three such vacant schools. The school was closed down earlier this year after pupils were relocated to the Tyilulwazi Secondary School.
This is not the only example. Roads, clinics, hospitals and other government buildings in the Eastern Cape is being reduced to rubble because of a lack of maintenance and proper administration.
