Special report
A three page special report in The Herald one year after Madnela's passing.
A Legacy in Ruins
As the world remembers former president Nelson Mandela today on the first anniversary of his death, his legacy is already in tatters in some parts of the Eastern Cape, including his hometown of Qunu where he is buried.
An investigation by The Herald that covered 3000km found schools and a college with ramshackle classrooms, leaking roofs, cracked walls, no running water, broken toilets or smelly long-drops, dilapidated furniture and dangerous electrical connections.
This despite the millions of rands that were ploughed into them by corporate sponsors after Mandela took office in 1994 and charmed them into helping him develop hundreds of clinics and schools across South Africa.
Mandela’s personal assistant of 19 years, Zelda la Grange, said in an interview: “Education, specifically, was a huge headache for Madiba.
“He always spoke about the importance of proper education and spent a lot of time trying to ensure that everyone, no matter who or where they were, had access to schools. Mandela was driven by his passion to help children.
“Often this passion caused some impulsive decisions that left little time for planning and forward thinking.
“He was inundated with requests from communities, in particular the rural villages around his Qunu home.
“As soon as the village chiefs expressed the villages’ need for education, Mandela would pick up the phone and start dialling big names in the business world to help.
“However, you cannot just erect a building and expect education to thrive,” she said.
“What many people, and sometimes Mandela himself, failed to realise was that the problem was much bigger than just a building.
“These schools needed furniture, equipment and, above all, teachers – things the sponsors could not necessarily provide.”
The Herald team visited 17 education institutions and clinics in remote areas like Mbizana in the mountainous north of the province and Queenstown.
The five clinics were well-run and maintained, while visits to 11 schools and one collegeshowed a lack of capacity by the rural communities to manage the valuable assets Madiba had gone out of his way to develop.
Madiba’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, said: “My grandfather fulfilled his mandate. He built these schools. This must be a real commitment by businesses to the communities. They can’t just walk away.”
He urged the businesses to have a permanent relationship with the schools they built.
“If businesses partner with communities, it must be a permanent partnership. Business must ensure it is coming to effect change,” he said.
Most of the companies, however, said it had never been part of their commitment to maintain the schools and clinics they had donated. After they were built, they were handed over to the government and traditional leaders to maintain.
In the end, it is the children who suffer.
Thambekile Senior Secondary School department head Phumzile Nkasana said: “Every class starts in chaos. The pupils run into class pushing and shoving each other to find whole desks.
“By the time class starts, some are left holding only the frame of a table and others try and balance desktops on their laps. The rest just sit on the floor.”
A school near Lady Frere was opened by Madiba in 2001, along with former BMW AG chairman Professor Joachim Milberg.
The motor company spent R5-million developing the school and a clinic, but the school does not have running water.
Osborn Senior Secondary in Mount Frere was in the worst condition of all the schools and clinics visited.
It has no doors, no desks, no chairs and most of the ceiling is missing. Electricity is also a problem.
The school is a far cry from what it was when Mandela arrived with what was then Iscor, now privatised as ArcelorMittal SA, that donated R3-million in 2000.
Department head Zintle Dawedi said they were still waiting for assistance from the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“Many of us want to study late into the night at school, but because there is no electricity we cannot study as much as we would like,” Grade 12 pupil Sinethemba Ntondini, 19, said.
Few business leaders had the stomach to turn Mandela down when he approached them for funds.
“He asked in such a friendly way. It was very difficult to say no,” Sun International’s Daniel Ntsala said.
The group donated a clinic in Qunu.
According to reports, Mandela managed to raise R250-million in corporate cash between 1994 and 2001 to build more than 120 schools and clinics.
La Grange highlights Madiba’s passion for developing schools and clinics in her recently published book, Good Morning, Mr Mandela. - Mkhululi Ndamase and Riaan Marais