This drone view, taken from the Public Protector's report, indicates the wetland and 32m buffer taken at the time of the survey, indicating the construction of the platforms and ground dumps in the northern part of the site.
The Gauteng department of education has said it “welcomes” the public protector’s Mayibuye Formal Report, which found against the province’s department of infrastructure development and the education department concerning the improper construction of a school in Tembisa which ended up costing R82 million.
“The Gauteng department of education acknowledges the findings of this report and is committed to implementing the recommended remedial actions,” the department’s spokesperson, Steve Mabona, said.
The public protector’s investigation, released at the end of June, found that the conduct of the functionaries of the two departments “did not comply with the applicable legal prescripts and procedures regulating procurement or supply chain management processes during the construction of Mayibuye Primary School”.
The investigation originates from a complaint lodged by Build One South Africa’s (Bosa’s) leader, Mmusi Maimane, in September 2020, who said the school was constructed on an old sewer line, because a wetland study was not conducted.
According to the complaint, the Gauteng infrastructure department spent R82 million to build the school for 1 200 primary school learners.
But it was only after the school was completed that a wetland investigation was conducted by the infrastructure department, which discovered a sewer line that had been leaking for years.
The report, issued under section 182(1)(b) of the Constitution and section 8(1) of the Public Protector Act, found that the improper construction resulted in “overspending, cost overruns and undue delays in completing the project”.
The Gauteng department of agriculture and rural development and environment had no record of an application for environmental authorisation, according to the report.
It is “immaterial at this stage whether the wetland is natural or artificial”, said the report, due to the leaking sewer being the main hydrological driver of the wetland because of possible human activities or disturbances that took place on the site.
The condition of the area still warrants rehabilitation or mitigating engineering solutions, according to the report.
The public protector also found that there were shortcomings and irregularities during the tender procurement process. The report details how the school contractor, Basic Blue/Nebavest, was appointed by the infrastructure department on 22 August 2015, but the “permission to occupy” the site was obtained on 22 September 2016, from the landowner, the City of Johannesburg — 13 months after the contract was awarded.
The report further states that the education department amended the scope of the contract four days after the contractor was appointed to include, among other things, “smart school” requirements. This required additional funding from the provincial treasury, resulting in increased costs and further delays in getting approvals.
The handing over of the site to the contractor was also unduly delayed, which took place on 12 May 2017. As a direct result of the delays, the infrastructure and education departments had to pay compensation events (CEs) to the value of R10 060 519.73 to the contractor for “standing time”.
“Poor project management by the GDE [Gauteng department of education] and GDID [Gauteng department of infrastructure development] resulted in their inability to identify shortcomings that existed on the site such as the revision of the scope of the project by GDE to incorporate smart school’s requirements,” reads the report.
According to the infrastructure department’s internal investigation, findings by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) and the Gauteng treasury confirmed that there was irregular expenditure caused by poor contract management and planning by departments’ officials.
“This irregular expenditure flagged by GDID’s internal investigation, AGSA and GPT [Gauteng provincial treasury] is also in direct violation of sections 38(1)(ii) and 45(c) of the PFMA [Public Finance Management Act],” the report found.
The public protector said the infrastructure department must provide a project plan within 60 days of the implementation of its external civil works.
The project plan must indicate how and when the completion of the remaining external civil works will be finalised to ensure the school is fully operational in line with efficient and economic management of the funds.
The project plan should be in terms of section 38(1)(c)(iii) of thePFMA, which will enable learners to use all the facilities at the school in 2024.
Bosa said its member in the provincial legislature, Ayanda Allie, has written to Premier Panyaza Lesufi to establish a multi-party task team from the legislature to oversee the implementation of the public protector’s remedial action.
“We are of the view that the remedial action is flimsy and deficient and illustrates how far this matter is away from being settled. All efforts must be made to recover the funds spent otherwise shady contractors and compromised government employees get away scot-free,” said Bosa’s spokesperson, Graham Charters.
The education department has, over the years, faced scrutiny of its handling of the provincial treasury to improve school infrastructure.
In February, the Mail & Guardian reported the Gauteng education department was apparently complicit in dysfunctional schools abusing state funds in the “squandering” of R10 million in three years at KwaDukathole Comprehensive School in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni.
Witnesses said KwaDukathole schoolchildren had to arrive by at least 6am to book a seat and if they arrived late they had to use bricks and rocks as chairs.
Earlier this year, learners at Durban Deep Primary near Roodepoort reported having to learn in decaying classrooms and use dilapidated toilets. There was also stable electricity supply.
This comes despite a 2023 statement by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng accusing the MEC for education, Matome Chiloane, of misleading the public by claiming that the school would be completed by the end of March 2023.
In 2023, a four-month investigation by amaBhungane revealed that Gauteng’s education and infrastructure departments sold off the functional Phoenix Secondary School in Duncanville in Vereeniging in 2001, along with a 27-hectare land parcel for R600 000.
In 2022, the DA raised the alarm on the abandoned construction site of the Nancefield Primary School in Eldorado Park — two years after construction began. Learners had to use cramped mobile classrooms.
According to Gauteng finance MEC Jacob Mamabo, the education department will receive R65.8 billion for 2024-25 and a total of R205.9 billion over the 2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework for education and skills development.
The social justice movement, Equal Education (EE), said the treasury has limited the quality of education.
“Reduced spending per learner means one of two things: either the quality of education will suffer or the number of learners provided with schooling will need to go down. Neither of these options should be allowed,” the EE said in a statement after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech in February.
Gauteng’s education department told the Mail & Guardian it was reviewing school infrastructure and will implement changes, as needed.