Cost of constructing new Alrapark Primary School building estimated up to R120m

JOHANNESBURG - The costs of constructing a new building for Alrapark Primary School in Nigel, Johannesburg, is estimated between R80 million to R120 million.

The Gauteng Department of Education shared the figure during a visit to the school on Monday, while assessing its infrastructure.

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This comes after learners have had to grapple with attending classes in dilapidated structures since 2013.

Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane said the cost of refurbishing is higher than rebuilding, addimng that they will construct a new school instead.

This is after community members spoke up that the building was dilapidated and the dusty playground posed a health risk to their children.

On Tuesday, an infrastructure maintenance official from the department said in the past three years, they renovated the grade R block, including roof water leaks, refurbished toilets and worked electrification.

The department admitted that the electricity in the classrooms still had problems even after repairs and will now again fix it.

“When we did our calculations, we found that it is better to build a new school than to fix these ones because we pay for demolition and pay for building as opposed to paying for building, so the school will be reprioritised and within my term of office, I am going to cut the ribbon here,” said Chiloane

He added that the new school will have to be bigger than the old one to accommodate the learner population growth.

KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON CONSTRUCTION

The Alrapark Primary School Infrastructure Crisis Committee said it will be keeping a close eye on the construction of their new school, meant to be completed within 18 months.

The Department of Education announced that the construction would soon start, and the committee would be given deadlines for all phases.

Chiloane said he wants to be held liable, should there be any delays on the construction.

He conceded that in the past, there have been contractors who were paid without them completing construction.

In 2024, in Noordgesig Secondary School, a contractor received over R2 million for repairing an administration block, including plumbing and electrification, but work was incomplete.

Chiloane acted on the inspectors who failed to do their jobs and launched an investigation

He said that he does not want a repeat of the past.

“They need to make sure that we don’t have another Noordgesig, where I get to say work has been done because there are all the signatures, but then work was not done because of some agreements. There is another case where I won’t speak about it, but work was not done and that’s a problem”

He added that the nutrition centre of the school would be a priority to fix.