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Article by Sisa Sityata-Soga
South African‘s electricity public utility giant, Eskom, in collaboration with the Eastern Cape Education Department and the community of Phungulelweni village gathered in their newly built and nearly complete school recently to honour those involved in the rebuilding process of Phungulelweni Senior Primary School.
Outlining the significant contribution made by Eskom Rural and Foundation Development towards Phungulelweni SPS, Eskom Project Manager Unathi Pendu was adamant that the new structure will afford the school to produce quality education to all learners particularly for those in the foundation phase.
“There’s nothing as important as laying a right and solid school foundation for our children and what is rather most fulfilling is to see that through Eskom’s intervention, on this same day, 21 Gr R learners will be graduating in a more dignified structure”- she said.
Established in 1996, learners of Phungulelweni Senior Primary School attended classes at local houses until the community got together to build three mud-structured classrooms which intermittently collapsed from the frequent and strong unfavourable weather conditions in the area.
With two newly built permanent structures and a block of three prefabricated class-rooms, Phungulelweni SPS SGB Mazulu Nyikinya said the new development of the school was “a sign of better and brighter things to come”.
“We are overjoyed beyond words with all the generosity from all those involved and this school is our community’s pride”- said Nyikinya.
Currently, Phungulelweni SPS has an enrolment of 208 learners and 9 educators providing Gr R to Gr 6 but Nyikinya was convinced that the number of learners will gradually increase under the new structure.
“You know as parents, we can now relax whenever there are strong winds and heavy rain by taking comfort in the fact that, come each morning our newly built classrooms will still be there and the children will be taught as they should without interruptions and I also believe that some of the learners who had been moved away to other schools because of safety cautions will also return to the school”- she said.
Adding to the ululation of the community of Phungulelweni village was the assigned school’s contractor and owner of RGZ Projects Thulani Zondo who went an extra mile to contribute some of his services to the school at no cost. To date RGZ projects have contributed R 50 000 in cash and also plastered and painted the school structure free of charge.
According to Zondo, running of a construction business goes beyond gaining profits and making money.
“When I came to the school for the first, I remember noticing that teachers had neither chairs to sit on nor cabinets for storage of teaching material and I immediately donated R40 000 towards purchasing of such equipment and today’s R10 000 should be seen as an attempt to give the school a starting point towards building either an admin block or perhaps purchasing of further school furniture”- he said.
Most schools in various rural areas are still operating under abject and impoverished conditions and in many instances the provincial education department has been found wanting in its implementation of building of proper structure chiefly due to inadequate infrastructure budget allocation.
However, following a pledge by the Eastern Region Eskom branch to continue partnering with the Department, Infrastructure Unit’s Qiqile Msiwa said more greater projects could be expected and deemed a positive turn-around with regards to school building facilities.
“Amongst the issues put under the pledge by Eskom was the support of the electrification of all Cluster A schools falling under its jurisdiction of Eastern Region and this is a first for us and it also means that we will finally have accurate electrification of schools’ report for all of those falling under Eskom’s jurisdiction”- he said.
With the newly established relations between the two organisations, Msiwa believed that “the open door policy from Eskom would allow the department much needed latitude in improving the schools’ conditions”.
He further regarded the contributions by Eskom and RGZ Projects as exemplary efforts that others in the construction field should follow.
“Other service providers can learn a lot from the Phungulelweni project in terms of social responsibility in the parts played by Eskom and RGZ Projects”- he said.
The school is fully electrified and the prefabricated classrooms are guaranteed to regulate temperature as they are built to retain warmth during cold days and maintain coolness during hot summer days.
Eskom has to date donated a total of R17 million in the area of Ntabankulu, of which Phungulelweni is included there-in, as part of its rural development schools projects and corporate social investment programmes. All of 13 schools in Ntabankulu were provided with 98 classrooms totalling R17 million between them.
Although no date has been confirmed yet, an official handover is scheduled to take place before the end of this year’s school cycle.
Article Tags: Electricity, Eskom, school, Phungulelweni
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