EC Education Department
Eastern Cape Education MEC Fundile Gade says a plan is in place to address the slow pace of school construction and refurbishments in the province.
Gade was speaking to Algoa FM News after handing over the R63-million Noninzi Primary School to the Kariega community on Friday.
He said the province had done a diagnostics report to hasten the pace of construction of schools around the province.
Listing some challenges, he said the department had a slow pace of paying contractors and some implementing agencies were often incapacitated.
"We are taking too much time on the planning cycle of government that is tedious and ambiguous which results in us not meeting the targets," Gade said.
He stressed, however, that the department was on top of the issues.
"We have tabled this to the provincial government, as well as the infrastructure development unit of the department of education.
"I can safely say we have a turnaround plan which is time bound, which has the resources in the context of funding which will make sure we meet the target," he said.
Nonzinzi Luzipho's School Governing Body Chairperson Alleta April said it had been a long journey to completing the build of the school.
She said they'd first started writing letters to the department to get a formalised structure back in 2009.
Parents then began protesting in 2014 before construction began in 2017.
"It is the responsibility of the community to look after the school," she said.
"Parents, we are in charge of the school and we must clean it when we have time" she added.
MEC Gade said the next stop would be Mthatha where he will hand over a school worth R189 million to the local community.
"In the next two weeks we should be handing over Tembisa Special School in Mthatha as a direct response to pupils with special needs.
"That is another area the Premier of the province has said that we should focus on," MEC Gade added.
