Where promised sports fields would have been built for excited learners at Northpine High School three years ago, now only remains an unsightly, overgrown, overmined sand quarry.
Unhappy residents who live near the school refer to it as a “glorified sand mine dump” the dust of which they cannot escape. “On a windy day we are blown away by sand. It is an eyesore and our homes are always covered in dust; its never ending,” says Bruce van Leeve.
“Contractors who dug out the mountains of sand years ago just left it like this, never to be seen again. We have asked our local councillors and the school principal, but get no answers.”
In April 2019 the school had grand plans to build sports fields consisting of a cricket oval, rugby, soccer and hockey fields.
At the time the school’s deputy principal, Van Loubser, at the sod-turning ceremony said that the school had negotiated with two companies to exchange sand on the school grounds for the building of the sports fields.
According to him the companies would exchange the sand from the school and give the school R12,50 per cubic metre of soil.
“They won’t give us the finances for this, but build sports fields instead. We are giving them sand and they are giving us sports fields,” he said.
Not having their own sports fields, learners at the school to this day have to travel to other facilities to play sports.
Principal at the time André Pretorius said that the planned sports fields were a “massive asset” to bring about change at the school.
He said the school wanted to “create something the learners have never had before to broaden their experience.”
TygerBurger also has it on record that Benjamin Schereka, director of Metro East Education District in 2019, now retired, congratulated the school with the project.
So what went wrong?
According to education spokesperson Millicent Merton, work started on the site prior to the school actually applying for approval by the department.
“The principal at the time acted in the position and did not have the authority to enter into an agreement with the company without prior approval,” she says.
Merton says the department only became aware of the project in 2020, after which they inspected the grounds.
“On inspection the department found evidence of over mining. The school was requested to make good on the property and return it to a condition that is suitable to construct a sports field on the premises.”
She continued to say that the school was advised to re-apply for the construction of a sports field once the over mining has been corrected, but could not give TygerBurger any indication of when this took place or when sports fields will be built.
“The time frames are unfortunately not available,” she says.
