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Eastern Cape learners will face another year in crumbling schools with poor infrastructure after the Provincial Department of Education forfeited over R200-million of its Education Infrastructure Grant back to National Treasury.
Democratic Alliance MPL, Yusuf Cassim, says this is “because it has proven it is simply incapable of spending the money.”
He said the loss of funds was a devastating blow to the province, which has an ever-growing infrastructure backlog, currently standing at R82.3 billion.
“The province has 3157 schools with inadequate sanitation, of which 1 445 schools are still making use of pit latrine death traps. There are 3,926 schools that do not have appropriate fencing and 634 schools that need a total of 9,464 classrooms built or refurbished,” Cassim said.
He said despite these major challenges, the Department has proven incapable of spending the money it receives to deal with these challenges.
Cassim said the R204.144 million in forfeited funds would most likely be distributed to other provinces that have proven they can spend the funds provided by the government.
