GA-MABINTANE
A multi-million rand project to renovate existing infrastructure and construct additional classrooms at Mashile Primary School in Ga-Mabintane Village outside Jane Furse, has been abandoned, leaving workers unpaid and learners crammed in overcrowded classrooms.
The project, which started earlier this year, was meant to upgrade the school with additional classrooms and other improvements ahead of a planned merger next year.
However, construction has been at a standstill since August 2026 after workers downed tools over non-payment.
Workers appointed directly by the main contractor and subcontractors say they have experienced delayed payments every month since the project started.
A visit to the school by the publication recently found the site quiet, with building material gathering dust, half-built classroom blocks standing incomplete, scaffolding left unattended and no workers in sight.
Workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, painted a picture of a troubled project plagued by payment issues from day one.
According to workers, the delayed payment pattern has been that they would work the whole month without pay, and would be forced to stay away from work in protest until the contractor paid their wages before they returned to site.
“This time around, the contractor did not pay us our August wages and we have been sitting at home since then. We are tired,” said one worker.
He said they had tried to convene several meetings with the contractor to explain the persistent late payments, but he failed to attend any of them.
“We only hear unverified information from the CLO that the contractor’s accounts were frozen that is why payments are late. We cannot believe that, it sounds like excuses,” he said.
With the contractor now nowhere to be found and unreachable on his known numbers, anxiety is growing among workers about whether they will ever be paid.
“Now we are worried if we will end up getting our money. We have families to feed, children to take to school, debts to pay. The contractor has disappeared. December is around the corner and if this continues, our families and children will have a black Christmas,” lamented one of the workers.
Community members are equally concerned that the continued delay will worsen overcrowding at Mashile Primary, which is already bursting at the seams.
One resident, who also asked not to be named, said: “This school is overcrowded. We were very happy when government brought this project because we thought finally our children will have proper classrooms. Now our joy has turned into disappoint as it has become a white elephant and we don’t know when it will be finished.”
Apart from addressing severe overcrowding at Mashile Primary, its upgrade is meant to prepare the school for a merger planned for next year, where the Limpopo Department of Education intends to merge it with another school from neighbouring Greenside Village.
The resident said the community is worried about the planned merger next year.
“How will this school accommodate learners from Greenside if the new classrooms are not finished? The department must intervene before it is too late,” he said.
By the time of publishing, the Limpopo Department of Education had not responded to enquiries about the stalled project.