More than two months after the new financial year came into effect on March 1, the majority of the prioritised school infrastructure projects in Nelson Mandela Bay have already ground to a halt, allegedly due to non-payment by the department of education. 
With some infrastructure projects already five years overdue, education MEC Mlungisi Mvoko assured principals during his oversight visit in January that unfinished construction projects would be prioritised in this financial year.
After receiving a funding allocation list of 10 incomplete projects from department of education spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani, a Herald team visited the listed sites on Friday.
There it was found that at least six of the 10 projects had either been abandoned by the contractors involved or that the principals were unaware of the supposed impending completion of the projects.
At some sites, existing material and infrastructure had allegedly been stolen, vandalised or left to rot.
In January, Mvoko said the department would prioritise infrastructure – however, he failed to provide allocations and deadlines, saying only that “we will know once we receive the budgets in the new financial year”.
In March, the province divided up its R82.1bn purse for the 2019/2020 financial year, of which the education department again received the lion’s share of R36.3bn.
It is now more than two months after the budget announcement was made and still the department is unwilling to provide an exact list of how the funding will be allocated across the 12 districts – despite numerous requests for this information.
Pulumani did say the department priorities exceeded the available budget, but that “the priority this year was made in schools that are in construction”.
Construction at Jubilee Park Primary School in Uitenhage was meant to have been completed in 2014 and valued at R114m.
However, the school was yet again left in the lurch after construction ground to a halt in 2019, according to deputy principal Vernon Esau.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.
“How can these unfinished projects be a priority when we haven’t had a contractor on site since February and nobody from the department has been here since?
“This project has been on and off for years due to the non-payment of contractors by the department ... It is always the same issue,” Esau said on Friday.
“And they [department officials] carry on while we are forced to sacrifice quality education for these pupils because of them being crammed in tiny prefab classes, attending school in shifts and the dangers of attending school on a construction site.”
Asked about Jubilee Park Primary, provincial education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the issues regarding payment were being resolved. Other projects in limbo – and yet listed by the department as a priority – include David Livingstone High (R71m), Bethelsdorp Comprehensive (R80m), Frank Joubert Primary (R14m), GJ Louw Primary (R10m) and Rufane Donkin Primary (R51m).
The issue was not the contractor but rather the department’s failure to make payments on time or communicate with contractors when there would be a delay in payment, a contractor at Bethelsdorp Comprehensive said.
Yikusasa Building Contractors’ contract manager, who asked not be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the firm had reported to site in November.
However, they only started working in early 2019.
This was due to certain issues the department had to iron out regarding the drawing up of plans.
Previous contractors, on site since 2016, had abandoned the project.
“At this point there is no architect. The architect that was involved – [the department] cancelled his contract.
“If [the department] had given us some form of indication or assurance about payments then we would be carrying on with the work.
“But the story from the department is that it can’t tell us when we’re going to get paid,” he said.
“We’ve had to procure for new water pipes and valves – these are the old water pipes which we can’t use because they’ve been in the sun for too long.
“If we had not stopped, all the floors would’ve been in [and we’d be working on the upper structure].”
Mvoko did deliver on his promise to intervene at EZ Kabane High School behind Ziyabuya Mall following an oversight visit to the school.
Principal Shumani Mathige said the conditions had previously “left me struggling to sleep at night”, but that getting their needs seen to was not without its challenges.
“For years, we had been trying to draw the department’s attention to the condition of the school.
“It was only after several letters, a visit to Bhisho and eventually just dragging the MEC to the school while he was here in January that we were able to get a fence around the school.
“We had to be relentless in our pursuit before something happened,” he said.
Van Der Kemp Primary School – also visited by Mvoko in January – had seemingly not done enough to gain the department’s attention.
This has resulted in already fragile infrastructure at the school ailing even further, with urinals overflowing, walls left with holes as a result of breakins and over-populated classrooms shared by up 70 pupils at a time.
The other schools on the infrastructure list include James Ndulula Primary (R50m), Nkululeko Senior Secondary (R68m), Noninzi Luzipho Primary (R77m), and Mfesane Senior Secondary (R95m).
Pulumani and Mtima failed to respond to questions relating to how the budgets were allocated, why the unfinished projects had stalled and how these issues would be resolved.