The Mpumalanga Department of Education has spent over R5 billion in the last five years on school infrastructure, yet hundreds of learners are still struggling to find spaces in schools.
The Department confirmed that as schools opened today, 892 learners from Emalahleni, Mbombela and Steve Tshwete have still not been placed in schools.
According to the department, 214 grade 1 learners and 200 grade 8 learners from Emalahleni are struggling to find schools. In Steve Tshwete 364 Grade 1 to 4 learners cannot find schools, while in Mbombela 314 Grade 1 learners have also not been placed.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned that the department has budgeted and spent more than R5 billion in the last five years on infrastructure and still our learners are left destitute.
The department has many projects, however they are years away of being completed and learners are bearing the brunt of dubious tenders, shoddy workmanship, or abandonment of the project before they are completed.
The Auditor General (AG) has found in its Provincial Audit outcomes for 2018/19 that projects recently built by the provincial department of education “did not adequately guide the design, nor did they provide appropriate corrective measures where deficiencies existed”.
The DA will submit Parliamentary questions to Mpumalanga Education MEC, Bonakele Majuba, with regards to the spending of the infrastructure budget over the past five years and reasons as to why learners are still being left behind.