R160 million and still no school: Nancefield’s construction woes

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30-09-2024
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The Citizen Online
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Nancefield Primary School remains unfinished after five years and R70 million spent, with another R90 million needed to complete the project.

This is what you get for R70 million and five years – a half-finished school, parts of which have to be torn down before the project can be finished.

Completing the task will take another year and cost a further R90 million.

Five years after construction first began at Nancefield Primary School, the building is incomplete. This week, workers began clearing the tall grass surrounding the structure, but what was intended to be state-of-the-art facility is far from ready.

1 300 children use mobile classrooms

Worn-out rafters and weather-beaten beams were disassembled this week. A short distance from the construction site, about 1 300 children continue to use mobile classrooms.

The project, which was meant to transform education in the area, has been marred by numerous delays, contractor issues, and budget overruns. As of September, the school is only 50% complete.

Preventine Webster, a member of the steering committee and a local resident, has been watching the decay of the structure with growing frustration.

“This was supposed to be a pilot project, the introduction of high-level schooling like nothing we had seen before. But this school has never been prioritised,” he said.

“I live across the street and have watched with so much pain as the building deteriorates. They had to be forced to start work again after months of silence.”

1 of 17 incomplete and abandoned schools

This is just one of 17 schools in the province that is incomplete and abandoned. At the site, grass grows through the cracked concrete and window frames are rusting.

The new Nancefield Primary School was intended to be a state-of-the-art facility. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

Parents like Webster have been watching the impact this has had on their children.

“My child started here in 2018 and by 2019, construction had forced him into the mobile classrooms. That’s the only school he knows.

“I have to tell him that this unfinished building is actually his school that I attended myself,” he said.

The project stalled completely in 2022 but last month, the Gauteng department of infrastructure development finally appointed a new contractor to complete the work, setting a timeframe of 12 months.

Rising costs

However, the DA’s Nico de Jager highlighted concerns over the rising costs. New facilities at the school will include 28 classrooms, a new administration block, laboratory/library, sports facility, guardhouse, covered refuse area, nutrition centre and two combi courts.

The department confirmed that an additional R87 million has been allocated to the new contractor, pushing the total cost far beyond the initial budget.

“R68 million has already been spent from an original budget of R120 million,” De Jager said. “Now, with the new contractor, we’re looking at an additional R87 million, but that could increase depending on what they find once work resumes.

“After so many years exposed to the elements, more problems are bound to arise.”

The new contractor and the departments involved have assured the community the project will be completed by August 2025.

Project will be completed by August 2025

“I’ll bet it won’t happen. The contractor didn’t do the initial assessment, so they can’t be held accountable for what the previous one left behind. Realistically, it’s going to take at least another year,” De Jager added.

The demolition of the old Nancefield Primary was part of Gauteng’s asbestos school eradication programme.

While the Gauteng department of education oversees the project, the responsibility for construction lies with the Gauteng department of infrastructure development, which De Jager believes led to a lack of accountability and progress.

“We’ve been following this debacle from the start and demand that the Gauteng department of infrastructure development and the education department align their efforts and prioritise the completion of this vital project,” De Jager said.

Just a few kilometres away, Thubelihle Intermediary School in Jabavu faces similar setbacks, also due to contractor challenges.

Thubelihle Intermediary School faces similar setbacks

A new contractor has been appointed. “The Gauteng department of infrastructure development is the implementing agent for the department of education, but these departments don’t communicate effectively,” De Jager said. “One says one thing, and the other says the opposite.”

The infrastructure development department is confident the project will be completed within budget and the agreed time.

“We have put in place robust, smart project monitoring tools that are assisting in bringing transparency and accountability throughout the implementation of social infrastructure projects,” department of infrastructure development spokesperson Theo Nkonki said.

Parents and children in Eldorando Park are also hoping that the promise of a new school will eventually be fulfilled.