Pretoria school shut down due to non-compliance with Occupational Health and Safety Act measures

Inspectors from the Department of Employment and Labour had to intervene when they noticed pupils peering through windows from a two-story high building while conducting inspections nearby during the current mega blitz inspections.

In accordance with Section 30 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Department of Employment and Labour’s Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) unit had to force the closure of a combined school in the Pretoria Central Business District with immediate effect as of today, 29 September 2022.

The Purpose Finder Academy from Grade R to Grade 12, in-housed at 404 Testimony House on the corner of Edmund Street and Du Toit Street in the downtown area of the Pretoria CBD, was therefore immediately served with a prohibition notice by the Department’s inspectors.

The school was prohibited under Section 30 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act because the number of students in the classrooms exceeded the space provided by the school. It was also prohibited from operating due to building or facility ventilation challenges at the school, as indicated by Department of Education inspectors who found no natural or mechanical ventilation in the classrooms.

Therefore it has been prohibited from continuing to operate until the identified matters have been rectified.

Source: Government of South Africa