Qunu and Nkalane primary schools, a few kilometres away from Mandela’s homestead where he is buried, were the first two schools that benefited from the former statesman’s public-spirited approach to corporates.

Only a year after he was elected as the president in 1994, Mandela – who placed a high value on education – officially opened the newly built Qunu Primary that cost R2-million.

The Bill Venter Foundation was the obliging donor.

Prominent South African businessman and chairman of electronic giant Altron, Venter is also a trustee of Mandela’s Children’s Trust Fund.

Qunu primary, a stone’s throw away from the Nelson Mandela Museum and his homestead where he is buried, struggles with a leaking roofs, cracking walls and broken windows.

However, department head Felix Mbulana said those were not their biggest challenges: “The new building was completed in 1995. Our biggest challenge is actually that our learners are not motivated enough to actually come and learn.”

“Luckily we have a very good partnership with the parents and we do our best to motivate the children because this is a Mandela school and we have to keep his legacy alive,” Mbulana said.

Down the road is the Nkalane Primary. As part of the same project as the Qunu school, the world icon also built five classes here.

The same problems as Qunu Primary existed at Nkalane, where some of the classes are still held in crumbling mud structures.

“We have tried maintaining our building, by fixing cracks and replacing windows using our funds, but we cannot cope with all the cracks. The roofs are also leaking,” said principal Mpondomise Ndzambo.

“We also need an administration block. Maybe then we can have a principal’s office, a staff room and a clerk’s office because we do not have any at the moment.”

The school still uses long-drop toilets that were in clean and in good condition.

Altron group corproate communications manager Ipelegeng Thibedi said Altron was honoured and thrilled to provide the schools for Madiba in the mid to late ‘90s, that “he, together with his school boards undertook to provide the maintenance of them thereafter”.

Piece-by-piece Milton Mbekela Senior Secondary was built over the years by the community and a collection of sponsors that include big multinationals like Caltex, Vodacom, MTN and Eskom.

For Milton Mbekela it all started in 1997 when petrol company Caltex pumped millions into the first extension that now stands in rack and ruin. The school is not far from the Nelson Mandela Museum and across the road from the Mandela homestead.

Not a single classroom in the block has an intact ceiling, with roof plates clearly visible through the missing pieces of ceiling.

“We struggled to concentrate in class especially when it rained because while the teacher was teaching, we had to shift around so we would not get wet from the leaking roof. That caused a lot of distraction in class,” said Unathi Vakele, 18, soon after she finished writing her matric exams.

But there remains a glimmer of hope in Vakele, that someone will come and fix the school soon so that the pupils will be able to concentrate on their studies once again.

Ablution facilities are also a problem at Milton Mbekela. The toilets that are in a bad condition and long-drops built into wood and metal structures are rusting and rotting away, making them unsafe to use. Barely any of the toilets have doors that close properly.

A new classroom block, sponsored by a Vodacom, does however stand proud next to the deteriorating block donated through Madiba’s intervention almost 20 years ago.

Teacher Bonza Jafta said they were happy when the extension was built in 1997, but there has been no contact from that sponsor since: “The sponsors never came back to check how we were doing so we were left with a lot of challenges. The classes are in a dilapidated state and they need to be fixed,” Jafta said.

She said they tried to repair as much as possible themselves, but money was scarce and problems started becoming out of hand.

Suzanne Pullinger, spokesperson for Chevron South Africa which runs the Caltex brand, said Milton Mbekela, which cost R5-million to build, emanated from a request made by Mandela.

“Our involvement with the project was a once-off agreement and solely related to the construction of the infrastructure, which was handed over to the Eastern Cape Department of Education and the community and now falls under the responsibility of the Mthatha Education District.

“We value the long lasting relationship we had with Madiba. In 2013, as part of Nelson Mandela International Day and on request from the school principal, Chevron donated stationery packs for all grade 11 and 12 learners at the school.”  – Mkhululi Ndamase and Riaan Marais