“You have shown me a school that was once a state of the art, but today it has broken windows and doors. Who did that? It was not the company. It was not Madiba himself. It was the community itself"
Mandla Mandela
Mandla Mandela
For former president Nelson Mandela’s dream of using education as a vehicle to change lives to be realised, there needs to be an ongoing partnership between companies that heeded his call to build schools and the communities the schools were built for, his grandson chief Mandla said.
This, as The Herald spent a week visiting some of the schools the late world icon officially opened in the former Transkei after he sourced funding from businesses.
In an interview at his Mvezo homestead on Sunday, Mandla said the former statesman had played his part by getting businesses to build schools in some rural areas.
However, Mandla stressed the need for businesses and communities to have an ongoing relationship even after handing over the schools.
With all the schools visited by the team having similar problems like broken windows, doors, ceilings and no toilet facilities, Mandla said communities should also meet businesses halfway and own the schools.
“It could be interpreted that if you look at business commitment, it was just fiscal dumping. They just brought money, dumped it and walked out.
“You have shown me a school that was once a state of the art, but today it has broken windows and doors. Who did that? It was not the company. It was not Madiba himself. It was the community itself.
“So the communities that were recipients of these schools and clinics need to preserve and protect these institutions. If they are really embracing my grandfather’s legacy, they will seek to preserve what Madiba brought to them,” Mandla said.
“If businesses partner with communities, it must be a permanent partnership. It must ensure it is coming to effect change and to ensure that it brings about a sustainable community. We don’t want rural South Africa to endlessly be looking into grants and be looking into government and render ours a welfare state.”
Backing up his statement of communities having an ongoing relationship with companies, Mandla cited Siemens, which built the Nelson Mandela School of Science and Technology in Mvezo for R100-million.
The company had also committed to pump R15-million into the school in the next three years - split into R5-million a year, he said.
“We have said to Siemens we don’t want a once-off donation and you leave.”
In keeping his grandfather’s legacy alive, Mandla and the Mvezo traditional council managed to get a R30-million sponsor for the almost completed Makgatho Lewanika Mandela Primary School about 5km away from his home.
There would also be a Nolusapho Early Childhood Centre worth R5-million at the primary school, Mandla said.
“Although he may no longer be with us, I believe the baton has been handed to myself, to us and to the broader South Africa, Africa and the global community to continue addressing these challenges that lie before us.
“I may not be perfect. There might be trial and error there, but as a growing person you aspire to effect change in the area you come from and also in the greater society you live in.”
He called on South African to emulate what his grandfather did. – Mkhululi Ndamase and Riaan Marais