Small school’s R16m tender reflects SA’s bigger corruption problem

After the multiple stories we have run over the past few months on major projects which have eaten up hundreds of millions of rands of taxpayer money, why are we focusing on a minor tender for R16 million to renovate a school in a rural area in North West province?

The answer is simple: what has happened at Seshupo Primary School in Tshunyane village outside Mahikeng shows how far down our national culture of looting has permeated.

Even those at the grassroots involved in small projects can’t be trusted to spend our money wisely… or even spend it at all on what it was intended for.

People who have assessed the project believe that the work done – repainting and re-roofing 13 classrooms, mostly with materials already on site – would, at the most, have cost R1.5 million.

Worse, though, is the fact that some of the repair work was done with material which may have been previously damaged in a storm and could pose a safety threat.

Parents have been reluctant to send their children to school because of concerns over whether the facilities are safe.

Other work carried out is nothing more than an insult to the community: vinyl laid over existing vinyl floors and door handles which, within weeks, started falling off.

This story matters because it underlines that, despite all the glorious political pontificating about freedom and a better life for all, the poor and those in rural areas are treated with contempt by our rulers.

Their situation – their desperate hope that things will improve – is cynically being milked by the parasite class, our politicians and those feeding at the taxpayer trough.

Those politicians can blame apartheid as much as they like for this – but that excuse is wearing increasingly thin.

This is nothing less than an assault on basic human rights.