Labhem Zakade might not be the tallest man in his village but he prides himself on one thing -- he has never been short on words.
However the elderly Lutatweni village resident found himself having to dig deeper for the right words when Public Works MEC Thandiswa Marawu breezed into the deeply rural coastal village in Port St Johns to hand over newly built classrooms to teachers, parents and pupils of Lutatweni Junior Secondary School.
“I am over the moon,” was all the old man could muster when asked how he felt about the MEC’s gesture.
The school was established in 1988 by parents in Lutatweni but battled to raise enough funds to built proper classrooms. Even a donation of a six-classroom block by a white tourist who frequented the area did very little to alleviate their plight.
Principal Zweledinga Madolo said the roofs of the classrooms were not stable so they could not risk the welfare of the children. And so they went begging to the village people to give them some of their houses to use as makeshift classrooms.
On the other hand, the villagers had tried to build additional classrooms at the school site but that did not go far as they did not have any funds to complete the job.
“For nearly 10 years we used three rondavels and a church building as classrooms. But one of the owners of these homes would kick us out of his rondavel and run a shebeen for several days on paydays,” he said.
This meant that Grade R children who were using the rondavel were left without a classroom for sometimes up to a week as it was frequented by shebeen patrons.
“For many years we had to put up with this and it was also not easy to manage a school because these rondavels were scattered all over the village.”
Their plight however finally reached the ears of Marawu while on a campaign trail last year. The MEC said she had summoned her officials to come up with a plan of action.
“ We approached several business people in Mthatha and East London who donated building materials including paint, bricks and other supplies. They jumped on board and we built four new classrooms and completed two classrooms. We also changed the roofs to the old block that was existing,” said Marawu, who added she had been frustrated when she first heard about the school’s plight.
“The environment is very important for a child to thrive. Some of them come from poor backgrounds but found themselves in a similar environment at school which was demoralising,” added Marawu. --
MEC steps in to rescue the school of hope
However the elderly Lutatweni village resident found himself having to dig deeper for the right words when Public Works MEC Thandiswa Marawu breezed into the deeply rural coastal village in Port St Johns to hand over newly built classrooms to teachers, parents and pupils of Lutatweni Junior Secondary School.
“I am over the moon,” was all the old man could muster when asked how he felt about the MEC’s gesture.
The school was established in 1988 by parents in Lutatweni but battled to raise enough funds to built proper classrooms. Even a donation of a six-classroom block by a white tourist who frequented the area did very little to alleviate their plight.
Principal Zweledinga Madolo said the roofs of the classrooms were not stable so they could not risk the welfare of the children. And so they went begging to the village people to give them some of their houses to use as makeshift classrooms.
On the other hand, the villagers had tried to build additional classrooms at the school site but that did not go far as they did not have any funds to complete the job.
“For nearly 10 years we used three rondavels and a church building as classrooms. But one of the owners of these homes would kick us out of his rondavel and run a shebeen for several days on paydays,” he said.
This meant that Grade R children who were using the rondavel were left without a classroom for sometimes up to a week as it was frequented by shebeen patrons.
“For many years we had to put up with this and it was also not easy to manage a school because these rondavels were scattered all over the village.”
Their plight however finally reached the ears of Marawu while on a campaign trail last year. The MEC said she had summoned her officials to come up with a plan of action.
“ We approached several business people in Mthatha and East London who donated building materials including paint, bricks and other supplies. They jumped on board and we built four new classrooms and completed two classrooms. We also changed the roofs to the old block that was existing,” said Marawu, who added she had been frustrated when she first heard about the school’s plight.
“The environment is very important for a child to thrive. Some of them come from poor backgrounds but found themselves in a similar environment at school which was demoralising,” added Marawu. --
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