New school in Beitbridge to address congestion

THE opening of a new primary school in Beitbridge town’s Ward 4, Khwalu 2 suburb, has been postponed for another term, and the delay is attributed to the pending construction of a caretaker’s house and the connection to water and sewer reticulation systems.

The new school is anticipated to significantly benefit the local community by providing much-needed educational facilities. However, the completion of essential infrastructure is necessary to ensure the school’s smooth operation and sustainability.

Authorities are working to expedite these final construction phases to open the school as soon as possible.

The school was built through devolution funds and will open in January.

So far, it has two classroom blocks and authorities are now working on the toilets and other related facilities.

Beitbridge Municipality spent thousands of dollars to build the two classroom blocks at a new primary school.

“The two classroom blocks are ready and we are about to complete building the toilets and then we start with the caretaker’s house and complete the water and sewer connections,” said Beitbridge town clerk, Mr Loud Ramakgapola.

“We plan to complete everything critical in the remaining few months of this year so that the school opens to the public in January 2025.”

The local authority also runs Dulivhadzimu Primary School and Vhembe High School.

It is expected that the building of the new primary school will help address congestion in existing schools in the rapidly growing border town.

Beitbridge mayor, Councillor Peter Pirato Mafuta said the local authority also plans to utilise devolution funds to build more schools in response to the increasing population.

The town, with an estimated population of 100 000, presently has three public secondary and six primary schools. Ideally, there should be one primary school for every 5 000 people and one secondary school with three feeder primary schools.

Among other things, the municipality had also used devolution funds to buy the earth moving equipment which is critical in terms of the servicing of stands and road maintenance.

Using last year’s allocation of devolution funds, Beitbridge Municipality managed to digitise services, buy solar power backup systems to ensure they offer continuous services, and upgrade the Local Authorities Digital Systems (LADS) for budget formulation.

The council also construct a new clinic to improve primary healthcare facilities.

In its last budget statement, the local authority proposed to build a polyclinic, 25 houses, procure a 20 000-litre bowser to augment the firefighting services, a tipper, a 12-tonne roller compactor, and an ambulance.

The council has also proposed to install public lights, acquire tow service vehicles, and drill two boreholes at strategic points to address water challenges.

Service delivery has gradually been improving at the cash-strapped municipality as the Government continues to fund key capital projects under the devolution initiative.

Over the past four years, service delivery has improved with the acquisition of essential equipment and vehicles, thanks to continued Government funding under the devolution initiative.