Nine years later and Lemana College still not completed

Nearly nine years have passed, yet the long-awaited project to turn Lemana College near Elim into Lemana Secondary School is still not complete. The Lemana Task Team and Waterval Community Development Forum members are deeply concerned about further setbacks brought on by vandalism and burglary at the site.

The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) started with construction for the Limpopo Department of Education’s project in 2013, but the process was delayed on several occasions. While this development is stalling, classrooms, hostels, and halls are being vandalised and electrical appliances stolen.

The Lemana College Task Team’s Mr Sukani Makondo said the school was being neglected, and that after millions of rands had been injected into its renovation. “We find it very disturbing. We are now busy requesting the Department of Education to give it the status of a TVET college, but at the same time, we realise that vandalism is at its peak,” Makondo said.

He voiced his concern over the sluggishness of the project. “You cannot have an unfinished project for more than eight years. There’s no one safeguarding this site except the security company that is here voluntarily. Even the heritage authority has deserted the place.”

The chairperson of the Waterval Youth Forum, Mr Falaza Khosa, said, “We sent several letters to the departments of Education and Public Works last year, with no response. We then phoned the project manager’s supervisor and he promised to visit the site, but until today he has not come,” he said.

The Limpopo Department of Education spokesperson Mr Tidimalo Chuene said that the first tender had been awarded to Bankuna Engineering and Construction at a cost of R36,58 million. However, the contractor was dismissed on 15 May 2017 because of poor performance. “Lilithalethu Trading 41 replaced the first contractor to complete the construction project for R30,13 million on 12 June 2018, but community members disrupted the project and eventually closed the site in September 2019, arguing that the previous contractor still owed the local labourers and sub-contractors payment for the 26% work that had already been done,” she said.

Mr Joel Seabi, spokesperson of the DPWI, confirmed that the department has been negotiating with a contractor to resume work once the budget has been endorsed. “We are working with the Limpopo Department of Education to restart construction and, hopefully, in this month of April 2022, all the necessary paperwork will be done, which will allow the DPW to proceed with the work on site,” he said.

According to Seabi, the old hostels and halls that had been vandalised do not form part of the project’s scope. “The end user, which is the Department of Education, is responsible for security at the other sections of the facility. We discourage vandalism entirely, and instead encourage residents to care of public property.” He said the project would be completed within 12 months from the date that the contractor resumed development.

Date:16 April 2022

By: Thembi Siaga

Thembi Siaga started as an intern during 2021. He assisted with video photography and editing. He also produced numerous small documentaries, focusing on the Vhembe region and its people. Currently he works as a freelance journalist, covering stories in the Elim area.

Thembi studied at the Tshwane University of Technology, where he completed his diploma in Journalism in 2021.

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