Basic Education Dept outlines challenges to providing decent classrooms

JOHANNESBURG - Basic Education Spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the department is working hard to create a decent environment for learning.

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Mhlanga says the department has to contend with challenges like mother nature and the construction mafia.

He said, "you will recall that over two years in succession in KZN, there were floods that took place there, damaged over 600 schools."

"There were floods in the Eastern Cape that damaged schools and also stopped some of the projects that we were working on, and when you do your monitoring report, you don't factor that in, you just say the department missed its deadline, you don't ask why."

"So in some instances, yes the deadlines are missed but it's not because we just sit and do nothing, climate change is a real thing now, it's there and it's causing havoc in our plans as well, we need to factor that in, but we also have people situations where there are people with guns who come and chase out our construction workers from site because they are demanding to be part of the projects that are happening there, that too causes delays in the work that we are doing as a department."