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Yesterday the Democratic Alliance (DA) conducted a follow-up oversight inspection at Thaba Chweu boarding school and we were shocked to find that all the learners, educators and staff, including security guards, fled the newly-constructed Thaba Chweu boarding school.

The boarding school remains in a dysfunctional state where learners have had no access to basic necessities such as food, water and electricity. The food is rotting as the fridges are not working due to a lack of electricity. It seems that the school was abandoned at night.

It was reported that two of the learners aged five and eleven have been missing since they ran away from the school and the search for the two learners is still on.

Last year, the department closed eight non-viable schools in the area promising the learners and their parents that the Thaba Chweu boarding school will be operational as schools re-open for 2020. But, to the learners' and community’s surprise, the boarding school was not close to completion as promised by the department.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has on several occasions, since the schools opened for the first term, urged Mpumalanga Education MEC, Bonakele Majuba, to urgently intervene as the situation was getting more and more desperate. However, the MEC has not been forthcoming and has failed to respond to the DA, parents and the community.

The DA believes that the department should have waited and not closed the non-viable schools until the boarding school was 100% completed.

The Auditor General (AG) mentioned in his Provincial Audit Outcome report for 2018/2019 that the planned target completion date for the boarding school was May 2019, but found that:

• There was inadequate planning as there was no site plan available to measure the quantities, and this resulted in extensive re-measurement changes which could increase the contract price;
• The department did not ensure that the water license application process was undertaken. It will therefore not be possible for the school to operate without sanitation services and will remain unutilized until the sanitation service is functional; and
• Suppliers were not paid within 30 days.

Last week, the DA wrote to Premier Refilwe Mtsweni, urgently seeking answers and asking her to assist learners and parents of the Thaba Chweu Boarding school as these learners' basic right to education is being infringed.

These learners are now bearing the brunt of the mess created by the Mpumalanga Department of Education and the ANC-led Mpumalanga government. The DA will leave no stone unturned until every learner in Mpumalanga has fair access to education. No learner should be left behind.

Today the DA will approach the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) at their headquarters in Nelspruit and ask them to investigate this gross violation of learners' basic rights to a safe learning environment.

Issued by The DA