The Grade 8 and 9 classrooms at Intlanganiso Secondary school in Khayelitsha burned down.
|||Cape Town - The Grade 8 and 9 classrooms at Intlanganiso Secondary school in Khayelitsha burned down on Tuesday night, forcing nearly 100 pupils to take their lessons in the school laboratories on Wednesday.
It is unclear what caused the fire.
Principal Mntuwekhaya Tshemese said: “On the early evening of Tuesday I was called and told the entire school was on fire. When I arrived there were pupils, community members and fire brigade outside the school. The flames were very high.”
He was certain the fire could not have been started by an electrical fault, because the affected classrooms had no electrical wiring.
“Last year, vandals stole the wiring cables, so there was no electricity in three classrooms. There was only one power point and nothing was connected.”
One classroom was roofless and ruined, with charred desks and books strewn across the floor, all sodden by the pouring rain.
“I’m using the laboratories as classrooms and don’t know when the original classrooms will be fixed,” Tshemese said.
There are 48 pupils in each class and 1 256 in the school overall.
Bronagh Casey, spokeswoman for Education MEC Donald Grant, said the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage were unknown: “Three classrooms were affected, but two classrooms cannot be utilised at this stage. One classroom has been completely destroyed by the fire, one classroom was damaged as the ceiling had caved in, and a classroom below experienced water damage but can now be utilised.”
natasha.bezuidenhout@inl.co.za
Cape Argus