Following calls from the DA for an updated impact study to be done in Langenhoven Park before the planned school can be built, the Free State department of education has committed to their plan and refuses to delay the provision of education to learners of Bloemfontein.
Langenhoven Park Combined School has been in operation since the start of the 2025 academic year, with 129 Grade 8 learners enrolled in the school temporarily being accommodated in six classrooms at the Bloemfontein School of Autism. These learners are from areas across the metro, including Mangaung township, Heidedal, and Bloemfontein. Some learners who were initially intended for the school have been accommodated at other schools in Bloemfontein.
Free State department of education spokesperson Howard Ndaba did confirm that Langenhoven Park Combined School, once built, will be constructed as permanent classrooms. Regarding the timelines and costs of building a permanent structure, Ndaba explained it would be premature at this stage to quantify the impact on cost or timelines.
“The department is in the process of appointing a full professional team to initiate the design phase.” He stated that only once this process is complete, accurate projections on costs and timelines will become available.
In response to the DA’s call for an updated study, Ndaba said the department does not believe updated impact studies are required at this stage. “The department has already utilised its internal resources to review the existing studies, and they remain sufficient to guide the project forward.”
He did, however, mention that the public should be concerned that the DA only began calling for such studies once the announcement to build Langenhoven Park Combined School was made. “For years, there was silence from the DA on this matter,” he says. “Now, suddenly, they present it as if it were an innocuous call for improving the process.”
Ndaba believes that the call is an attempt by the party to delay the project. “Every delay in access to education is a direct delay in education itself; and for the families and children of Langenhoven Park and indeed the Free State department of education, that delay is unacceptable.”
The spokesperson also told Bloemfontein Courant that the public need not be concerned with the cost of the project, as the department can afford to erect permanent structures to house the school. “Provision for this has been made within our budget framework, and budgeting itself is a forward-looking process of planning.”
Warren Hawkins
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