Thato Secondary School in Free State closed due to safety violations by Department of Employment and Labour. Picture: Leon Lestrade / African News Agency (ANA)
The Department of Employment and Labour inspectors have shut down the Thato Secondary School in Botshabelo, Free State, because of its failure to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.
This comes after, concerned teachers, parents, and learners staged a protest on July 16, outside the school premises, highlighting issues such as falling ceilings that could pose hazards to learners and teachers.
According to reports, the school has been in a dire and dilapidated state since 2018, yet no action has been taken to address the issue.
The provincial spokesperson for the Department of Employment and Labour Cebisa Siyobi has said that this is the third prohibition issued to the Department of Education in the past three years.
“The school has been closed down due to unsafe electrical installation, mobile classrooms that are not stable on the ground, and broken ablution facilities. These findings pose imminent danger and possible injury or death to learners and employees,” Siyobi said.
She said that before this prohibition, in 2021, the facility was found to be non-compliant with certain provisions of the OHS Act (environmental regulations for workplaces, facilities regulations, and electrical installations regulations).
“The employer (Department of Education) was subsequently issued with the prohibition notice as the inspectors found that some classrooms were not in a condition to be occupied,” he said.
He said that a follow-up inspection was conducted on January 14 of the previous year, revealing that the Department of Education had taken corrective actions on the prohibition notice issued in 2021.
However, he said that inspectors found some classrooms, previously deemed safe for use in 2021, were now dilapidated.
“Upon these findings, the Department of Education was issued with a prohibition notice. The Department of Education bought mobile classes which were being used as temporary classrooms,” he said.
Meanwhile, provincial Chief Inspector Manelisi Luxande was concerned over the Department of Education’s ongoing disregard for occupational health and safety regulations.
“This is compounded by the fact that through such blatant disregard of safety issues, there is inevitable harm and fatalities against the occupants of the school. We cannot gamble with the lives of the learners and educators by permitting the school to operate under such glaring occupational safety issues,” Luxande said.
The Department of Employment and Labour said the school will remain closed until the Department of Education properly implements corrective measures for the occupational health and safety findings as determined by inspectors.
On July 16, Howard Ndaba, spokesperson for The Free State Department of Education, affirmed their accountability for the school's condition and vowed to find solutions to the issue.
“In the meantime, in the next two to three days we will appoint a contractor to remove the mobile classes in the right place, which is safe because safety is important to our children and schools,” said Ndaba in an interview with SABC News.
“In the long term in the next two to three months, we will appoint a contractor that will be able to build enough classes for the school. That’s the promise that we make as the department,” he said.
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