The Eastern Cape Department of Education does not have the money to remove asbestos from schools in the province, MEC Fundile Gade told the provincial legislature on Tuesday.

Gade also spoke about the financial and logistical problems involved in moving children from classrooms to take down asbestos structures.

He said that while there was not enough money to remove asbestos from all schools in the Eastern Cape, the department had not yet done a cost assessment. 

He said the department had no asbestos removal programme, but had signed a service-level agreement with the Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha to develop a strategy guided by the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Eastern Cape Education MEC Fundile Gade. (Photo: Lulama Zenzile / Gallo Images)

Gade was responding to a question from the Democratic Alliance’s Edmund van Vuuren.

In 2018, when the Bhisho High Court ordered education departments to speed up efforts to improve school infrastructure, it was estimated that it would cost around R15-billion to replace asbestos roofing in Eastern Cape schools alone.

The department has long wrestled with a costly backlog in infrastructure projects.

“Some of the funds are currently being made available gradually (annually) as part of the replacement of inappropriate school structures and building of new schools,” Gade said.

“There is no specific timeframe for asbestos material replacement because there is no dedicated asbestos programme, but also because of the enormous financial resources required to decant learners from existing classrooms and ablution facilities in order to remove and replace the asbestos material.”

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According to numbers made available by Gade, 1,075 schools in the province have asbestos roofs. Most are in the central part of the province — the Amathole District — where there are 328 schools. The two metros in the Eastern Cape have hundreds of schools that will need their roofs replaced — 237 in Buffalo City and 227 in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Asbestos fibres are carcinogenic to humans and flagged as hazardous by the World Health Organization. Since the material is highly hazardous to people’s health, especially when being broken up, its removal is strictly regulated by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

According to the WHO, asbestos can cause cancer of the lung, larynx and ovaries, as well as mesothelioma (a cancer of the pleural and peritoneal linings in the lungs). Asbestos exposure is also responsible for other diseases such as asbestosis (fibrosis of the lungs).

The DA’s Edmund van Vuuren said: “Education MEC Fundile Gade admits that asbestos can cause diseases such as asbestosis and asbestos-related cancer, but the department is dragging its heels on eradicating it from schools.

“While his department delays taking action, learners are at increasing risk as the general conditions of their schools deteriorate, increasing the chances of asbestos exposure.”

In March this year, the provincial education department reported its progress and backlogs in improving school infrastructure in a report to the National Council of Provinces.

According to statistics provided at the time, 81 schools were made entirely of inappropriate material, which can include mud and wood, and 1,005 schools had partial structures that did not comply with infrastructure regulations.

“An amount of R79-billion is required to address the infrastructure backlog and to get schools on par with the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure,” the report states. DM/MC