Primary school needs urgent refurbishment, upgrades

A local organisation specialising in skills development initiatives for the Mamelodi youth is desperately in need of funds to repair classrooms at Pheladi Nakene Primary School.

CEO of Ruta Bana Aga Sechaba (RBAS) Angela Phetla said their organisation specialises in skills development initiatives for the youth of Mamelodi in plumbing, electrical engineering, bricklaying, welding, early childhood development, entrepreneurship and IT.

Phetla said the organisation is appealing for assistance from individuals and local businesses in Mamelodi to help them refurbish their school classrooms for their skills development programme at the school in Mamelodi West.

She said the school principal offered the organisation six classrooms, which “we can use for our initiative of creating job opportunities for youth of Mamelodi”.

However, the challenge is that the classrooms were unfortunately vandalised by drug addicts who stole almost everything, including electricity cables and broke doors, door handles, windows and the ceiling.

Phetla said they desperately need funds or donations of these materials for the initiative to fully function and start providing necessary skills for unemployed youth.

“Unfortunately, we could not get funding from the SETA [Sector Education and Training Authorities] because upon inspection, they found out that our premises don’t comply with the health and safety regulations,” she said.

Therefore, the school classrooms are not used as a learning platform.

The school office has electricity, while the rest of the classrooms don’t.

The members of the organisation, including participants of the skills development and volunteers, including the local ward councillors, took part in a clean-up of the school premises.

“There was a lot of rubble in the classrooms, so we cleaned it up, and we also enlisted the unemployed elderly to guard the school,” she said.

Other troubling issues at the school included toilets that are not working and stolen ceiling boards. We had to get plumbing services to fix the toilets, as there was no water flow.

Phetla pleaded with local businessmen to come on board, and come and see what they are talking about.

“We desperately need help to refurbish the school classrooms.”

She said drug addicts – the very same people this initiative is helping to better their lives – had vandalised the school premises.

She added that the organisation also work with other organisations in Mamelodi in terms of referrals of drug addicts to rehabilitation centres.

“We also provide drug addicts with skills after completing their period at the rehab centre that will help them find employment or maybe help them register their businesses so that they can become entrepreneurs in their own right,” she said.

“We also have volunteers who help guard the school at night, though we don’t pay them that much.

“The approval of funds from SETA will help us change many lives in Mamelodi by creating job opportunities for unemployed youth.”

Anyone who wishes to help refurbish the school can contact Phetla on 082 263 2443.

*Please note this article has been amended.

The article previously referred to Rutang Bana Agang Sechaba Learning and Development instead of Ruta Bana Aga Sechaba. The two organisations have no affiliation whatsoever.

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