Harmony Gold, a mining company, handed-over three much needed classrooms to the school governing board of Kanyisa Senior Primary School, near Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape on the 19^th September 2007. This includes eight toilets and a borehole, whereas a school garden and the refurbishment of school furniture are in progress.  The project cost is estimated to be R590 000.

 

In the old government communities in rural areas built schools out of weak building materials and after some decades those buildings start to fall down. As a result of this, Harmony Gold, realised that there is a need for the replacement of the mud and sticks classrooms with safe bricks and cement classrooms.

 

Many schools in rural parts of the Eastern Cape do not have basic infrastructure such as toilets and water supply. Before the project started there was no water at the school and three hundreds and eight (308) learners and six teachers had to use a single toilet. There were only four classrooms built by the community and other classes were conducted under trees.

 

George Masha, Group Social Plan Manager, explains the involvement of Harmony, “Harmony employs about 3 000 mineworkers in the Eastern Cape province and 400 are from Lusikisiki. We have an important role to play investing, especially in education, in the areas where we source our labour. We invest about R3 million in education in the province. Last month as well we handed over infrastructure to Lungelo Junior Secondary School here in Lusikisiki.  We appreciate the role played by Teba Development in facilitating the project and we trust that the school governing board and government will continue sustaining the project and use the additional infrastructure effectively”.

 

Lusikisiki is a small town situated in Quakeni Local Municipality in OR Tambo District, one of the country’s poverty nodes. Poverty rate stands at 81.8%, making Qaukeni one of the poorest municipalities in the Eastern Cape.  A large proportion of the population (65.9%) is economically inactive. The extremely low education level, in the age group of above 20 years, 90% have from no schooling to some secondary schooling – is a major factor in the high level of unemployment. 

 

The schools assistance programme of Teba Development assists the most disadvantaged schools in rural areas to develop infrastructure, thereby establishing a sound base for their education. The programme focuses on classroom building, the provision of clean water and sanitation, as well as the establishment of vegetable gardens and the refurbishment of old school furniture, typically in rural areas.

 

“We thank Harmony for supporting this project. Our work has predominately been funded by the mining industry. As much as we have made a footprint in our target areas, we have realised that the development challenges in these areas cannot be tackled by the mining industry alone and there is a need for other players to avail their support. For example, we have more than 200 schools in the Eastern Cape that are requesting our assistance to provide infrastructure. The seriousness of infrastructure shortages in these areas cannot over-emphasised, and the front-page article of the Sunday Times, 24 June 2007, “SA’s Schools of Shame” confirms this shortages” concluded, David Cooper, Managing Director of Teba Development.