Infrastructure Improvement Programme Benefits Schools

The Gauteng Department of Education received four upgraded schools from the Twenty Prioritized Township Programme (20PTP) at a glittering event held at Ekujuleni Primary School in Sebokeng at Emfuleni Local Municipality. The programme has prioritized the upgrading of sixteen schools in Gauteng, but presently only four have been completed.

At the handover ceremony, MEC Angie Motshekga said it was encouraging to see schools being upgraded. “We are happy and grateful that there is progress in the area of upgrading of school's infrastructure. The backlog has been giving the department a headache.” She mentioned that the school buildings need to meet with the challenges demanded by the new curriculum. MEC Motshekga explained that the department in conjunction with the Housing Department which houses the 20PTP is in line with the government's goal of refurbishing all schools in the province by 2011.

Handing over the infrastructure, the custodian of the 20PTP, the MEC for Housing in Gauteng , Nomvula Mokonyane said the programme is aimed at improving infrastructure like in schools, clinics and roads that are tarred and have storm water drainage system. “We have noticed that roads that don't have such infrastructure don't last. Thus we as the government of Gauteng , decided to include storm water drainage system in all our new roads. With these projects we want to bring back life in the previously disadvantaged communities.” Mokonyane said.

20 Prioritized Township Programme is a government initiative that is aimed at rejuvenating all twenty identified townships in the province. About eighty million rand has thus far being utilized in the refurbishment of crucial infrastructure like roads, schools and clinics. “We want that by next year, all roads are tarred and have storm water drainage system. We have also ensured that during these refurbishments local labour is contracted to carry out the mandate.” said Mokonyane.

At Ekujuleni Primary School , about forty four people were contracted to work on site. The number includes seven males, seventeen female of which twenty people were from the youth sector of the community of Sebokeng. An amount of six hundred and fourteen thousand two hundred and eighty rand (R614 280.00) was allocated for the completion of the project. The scope of work at the school included the removal of vinyl floor tiles in the staffroom, replacing of the existing doors, fixing of toilet cisterns gutters and the installation of vertex notice boards. Other projects that were handed over at the ceremony included the new library at Tshepo - Themba High School, newly built ablution and health care facilities at the John Deo Clinic and the Phuthatswana street in Sebokeng Zone 13.