R45m needed to fix fire-hit Riverlea Secondary School
Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile says approximately R45 million will be needed to repair the fire-ravaged Riverlea Secondary School in Johannesburg.
The blaze broke out at on Tuesday, destroying a classroom block, including a library and science laboratory.
This is the third fire at the school following earlier incidents in 2007 and 2025.
During his visit to the school on Wednesday, Maile said the department would not bring in new mobile classrooms but renovate the school.
"This unfortunate incident is certainly setting us back financially, but we also need a lot of money to reinvest in infrastructure, in maintenance."
"A lot of schools are aging, but most importantly we need to build at least 100 schools in Gauteng alone. So we estimate that we will need roughly R45 million to repair the school."
The MEC called on the police to help find the culprits behind the torching of the School.
According to Maile, preliminary police investigations indicated that the incident was a possible act of arson.
"This is an act of cowardice. This is an act of heartless people and these are criminals. We want to urge members of the communities who might have seen something to cooperate with the agents of law enforcement."
"We need to hand these criminals down and we need to bring them to book,” lamented Maile.
