If private sector donors are interested in donating towards infrastructure and renovations, we have them work through the processes established by the department to identify the most pressing needs,”
Kimberley Porteus
Nelson Mandela Institute for Education and Rural Deceopment
Nelson Mandela Foundation
A year after former president Nelson Mandela’s death the organisations charged with keeping his legacy alive are still scrambling to document and monitor his life’s work.
Nelson Mandela Institute for Education and Rural Development director Kimberley Porteus said it was only later that attempts were made to keep track of projects linked to him.
“The majority of this work was done before the establishment of the Nelson Mandela Foundation in 1999 and so Mandela had no organisational network around him to coordinate, document and monitor the work he did,” she said.
Porteus said they knew of 140 schools in the Eastern Cape that were built but they did not have any more details.
But Mandela’s efforts were not universally appreciated and the Education Department preferred that corporate donations went through them.
The department could then allocate funding to schools of its choice.
“From the early 2000s the department created registers of need and prioritised school infrastructure, renovations and other donations upon this analysis. If private sector donors are interested in donating towards infrastructure and renovations, we have them work through the processes established by the department to identify the most pressing needs,” Porteus said.
She said some of the donors entered into relationships with the schools they helped, returning on multiple occasions.
But Porteus said this was done by choice.
To maintain these schools and further the understanding of the crises they faced, Madiba established the Nelson Mandela Institute for Education and Rural Development.
Porteus also said the Herald’s findings on the bad conditions at some of the schools Mandela helped did not surprise them. “... a massive investment [is needed]. The state of schools for many of our children is painful and untenable.”