After years of knocking on doors the Riverside View community can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Since the year of 2017, Riverside view leadership structure, “Riverside Representatives” which comprises of community leaders from all extensions in Riverside have been actively trying to get a school and other infrastructures built for the Community with little to no luck. On the 10th of January 2023 Riverside Representatives with the aid of Riverside View ward councilor Rufas Maswazi met with Gauteng Education MEC’s representatives, a representative from the Gauteng Infrastructure office, and Valuemax to present their demands.

Riverside View is a fairly new development only established in 2015 by the developer Valuemax, that has very quickly become populated by bond housing, apartments, and free housing. In the initial development plans of the community plots of land were set aside for infrastructures such as a Clinic, Police station, and School, but none of these have been built yet.

Itumeleng Mokone a member of Riverside Representatives & leader of Extention 66b said, Riverside Reprensentatives and the community see a real need for a school in Riverside View because the community is populated with children of schooling age that need to utilise schools outside Riverside View. Itirele-Zenzele Comprehensive school a public school in Diepsloot is over-populated with students from Diepsloot and Riverside. This over-population resulted in a Stampede that left a number of students injured. Itumelang went on to say “Another reason we need a school here in Riverside is that many of these learners don't have means of transport to schools outside Riverside View.”

The meeting held on the 10th of January proved to be fruitful as Riverside representatives gave the officials present at the meeting a deadline of early 2024 for the building and functioning of the school. The Gauteng Education MEC representative in attendance agreed to the deadline and promised to help the Riverside View Community in this regard. Riverside Representatives presented this tight deadline because, amongst other reasons, the busses that currently transport Riverside View students are often faulty, breaking down, and are not a long-term solution. “The busses pose a safety issue for the students because of their condition and the condition of the roads [Riverside View roads have many bends and circles].

The school is estimated to be built and functioning by January 2024 pending the budget allocating and purchasing of the land from developer Valuemax. Itumelang said, “The school is going to be a public combined school [ A school with a high school and primary school]. Valuemax has agreed to sell the plot of land allocated for the school on an installment plan.

The Riverside Representatives have created a task team that will be responsible for liaising with the relevant governmental and developer offices. The task team will provide continuous updates to the Riverside View community. According to Itumeleng having a public school in Riverside View will benefit students and their families as they won't have to travel outside of Riverside and to make this a reality the Riverside Representatives are even prepared to make use of container classrooms while waiting for the construction and completion of the school.