This after the Free State Education Department in January 2019 said it will take six months to rebuild it. The rebuilding process eventually only started on 6 November 2020. 

The chairperson of the school's governing body (SGB), Lerato Baartman, tells OFM News that the expected completion date of the project is only in April 2022. Baartman says some of the children who were originally vacated from the burning hostel, were moved to an open hostel whilst classes were also being used to accommodate them. 

In another incident, one of the hostels accommodating the children was vandalised. Those children were then moved to an undisclosed venue in town, from where they travel to school by bus daily, Baartman discloses. 

Baartman further says they are also in the dark about the reasons why the reconstruction only started last year November.  “We were also in the dark. Since it has been demolished it has just been like that up until last year November, so we don’t know what was wrong,” she adds. Baartman says they are in a hurry and can’t wait to see the hostel standing, as some of the school's classes are being used. 

OFM News previously reported that 135 learners were rescued from the hostel after the hostel building caught fire on 11 January 2019. The blaze allegedly started at the hostel parents' house and spread to the hostel. Nine learners were taken to the Pelonomi Hospital for smoke inhalation.

OFM News submitted a set of questions to the Department of Education and is awaiting a response.

OFM News/Blaine Jones