Mud schools take back seat to parliamentary discussion on role of IDT

The Select Committee on Public Services held a meeting on Tuesday, 25 February, with the Independent Development Trust (IDT) regarding their role in the delivery of school infrastructure with specific reference to the eradication of mud schools. Considering the huge public outcry surrounding mud schools, People’s Assembly was surprised that much of the ensuing debate and MPs questions focused more on the Department of Public Works relationship with the IDT rather than on the controversy surrounding mud schools. People’s Assembly was also surprised not to see education activists of the meeting.

The Department of Public Works (DPW) Director-General, Mziwonke Dlabantu, explained that the IDT is a government development agency that implements social infrastructure projects commissioned by national and provincial government departments.

However, its role has become a little murky because while it reports to the DPW, it directly engages and implements project management services for client departments in which the DPW neither facilitates nor regulates their activities. Public Works Deputy Minister, Jeremy Cronin, said, “the relationship between DPW and the IDT is not properly clarified”.

According to a presentation done by the IDT CEO, Thembi Nwedamutswu, the IDT has been participating in the National Eradication of Mud Schools and Inappropriate Structures Programme funded by provincial grants from Treasury since 2009. Acting as an implementing agent they are involved in project management of water and sanitation facilities upgrades in schools as well as replacing existing mud schools.

IDT’s total expenditure in school infrastructure over the past five years is a massive R7 496 664 606, including but not limited to spending R3 307 204 768 in KwaZulu-Natal, R1 735 114 598 in the Eastern Cape, R644 983 225 in Gauteng, R282 630 801 in Limpopo and R27 676 665 in the Western Cape.

The IDT reported to Parliament that in the 2012/ 13 financial year, their social infrastructure project programmes created a total of 34 534 work opportunities throughout the country. With reference to their “New and Replacement of Schools Programme” in the current financial year they are working on building 51 schools in Limpopo and 42 schools in the Eastern Cape among others.

IDT have also been appointed to project manage a pilot project of 17 schools (with 11 in the Eastern Cape and 6 in the North West) that will be built using Alternative Construction Methods (ACMs), where no brick and mortar is used. According to Nwedamutswu the ACMs are more environmentally friendly as they utilise non-toxic and recyclable materials, such as steel. As compared to conventional methods, ACMs are allegedly cheaper, quicker to build and are more energy efficient because they make use of insulated cores that offer higher thermal resistance value.

Nwedamutswu went on to say that IDT faced “a huge challenge in Gauteng with payments” as the contractors hired by IDT refused to hand over the keys to a new school because the Gauteng Education Department had not paid them. When People’s Assembly approached Nwedamutswu after the meeting she was not willing to provide further details such as the name of the school, seemingly in order to protect their client (namely the Gauteng Education Department). But, she added that the situation was solved in a day. This seemed inconsistent with her earlier statement of client payment delays being a “huge challenge”.

One of the few MPs to directly refer to the mud schools issue, ANC’s Ms Malesane Themba asked the IDP to provide more detail on where exactly they are building or fixing the schools so that she and other NCOP MPs could report back to their constituencies accordingly. The DA’s Mr Hermanus Groenewald also wanted to know how many mud schools there are in the Eastern Cape. “If you put on the TV you still see school learners sitting under the trees there. In my province it is the same there. Our Premiere in 2004 said there would be proper [sic] built schools by 2006 but that has not happened”, he said.

Nwedamutswu responded that she believed that the Basic Education and Public Works Departments should answer the question of how many mud schools there still were.