Kwikspace has been actively involved in contributing to educational infrastructure facilities’ development in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape. Primarily an agricultural and industrial province, aging prefabricated school buildings in several of the province’s districts are being demolished to make way for brick and mortar-constructed replacements – a 24 to 30 month process.

To ensure that learning continues unabated, Kwikspace was contracted by the Eastern Cape Education Department to provide interim modular classrooms to accommodate 1 700+ learners, as well as offices and other necessary infrastructure for seven schools. In another, almost concurrent, educational infrastructure project, Kwikspace was contracted by the Coega Development Corporation to provide appropriate and adequate school structures for 300 learners in a R7.8-million project called the Zamukhanyo Farm School. Located near Stutterheim, also in Port Elizabeth, Kwikspace mobile structures replaced the dilapidated rented farm building used by the school for a number of years.

The Zamukhanyo projectZamukhanyo School now comprises eight 7 X 9 m classrooms with lighting, plug points, blackboards and pin boards; a fully functioning kitchen with amenities, administration block with appropriate electrification, Grade R classroom and ablution facilities, paved assembly and parking areas. The area dedicated to the Grade R structure also received a jungle gym. All earthworks formed part of the contract, as did civils, electrification and water and sanitation connections.

“The site on which the school was developed has access to the municipal water and waste infrastructure,” explains Glen Moss, Eastern Cape Area Manager, Kwikspace. “So once the buildings were complete it was a simple matter of linking the school to the municipal system and tapping into the municipality-provided Eskom connection. This ensured that we provided a fully functioning school with all necessary amenities.”

Site work commenced in November 2017 with the completed school handed over in mid-July 2018. Subsequent to the handover, additional scope of work has been requested.

The districts projectSchools within the OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo districts will benefit from Kwikspace’s involvement in the project. They are: Mahobe SPS, Nazareth SPS, Mkiwane SPS, Mpolosa SPS, Silindini SPS and Qebeyi PS, with the seventh school to be awarded. The respective schools, each with a 250 – 300 learner capacity, will receive five classrooms, a Grade R classroom, computer laboratory, administration blocks and ablution facilities. Each standalone unit is 7 X 8 metres except for the administration block which measures 7 X 12 metres.

As is standard with most school projects, all classrooms are equipped with plug points, lighting, blackboards, pin boards and galvanised security gates. Non-conventional additions to the structures are alarm systems fitted to the administration blocks.  

The order was received in latter February 2018 with the site handed over to Kwikspace for development in mid-March. The semi-permanent structures are scheduled for completion in mid-October, when they will house learners, teachers and administrative personnel for approximately two-and-a-half years while the permanent brick structure is completed.

“As it takes between two and two-and-a-half years to build brick and mortar schools of these sizes,” Moss says. “The Kwikspace units make ideal classrooms and the perfect replacement for that period – and longer if necessary, after which they will be deconstructed and relocated for use in similar projects.”

All units across both projects come with Kwikspace’s standard one year warranty.