Pietermaritzburg
20 March 2007
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele and Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane
today committed themselves to ensuring that excellence in former missionary
schools in the province is further developed and sustained.
Premier Ndebele and Archbishop Ndungane met in Pietermaritzburg where they
discussed the modalities of achieving the objective of the project. Archbishop
Ndungane was appointed by Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordaan to lead the
project nationally. He told the Premier twelve sites had so far been identified
with four of these located in KwaZulu-Natal. These were Adams College, Ohlange,
Marianhill and Inanda Colleges.
Archbishop Ndungane said a database of such institutions should be
established and that alumni and other stakeholders such as business people and
architects, should be engaged. Such institutions, he said, should also be able
to work as clusters to utilise synergies in areas they specialise in, such as
self-reliance. Ndebele described the project as critical in the provincial
government's drive to link African Renaissance to the role missionaries played
in education and the upholding of good moral values, non-racialism and
non-sexism in the province.
"We have a real moral crisis in which fourteen-year old girls are dropping
out of school because of pregnancies. So the development of these centres of
excellence in our missionary institutions will go a long way y in restoring
morality while addressing issues of quality in our education," Ndebele
said.
Archbishop Ndungane said other sites had been identified in other provinces
such as Kilnerton in Gauteng, Zonderbloom in the Western Cape, Lovedale in the
Eastern Cape and another in Limpopo. The number was expected to increase as the
project unfolded. An operational plan had been drawn up by the national
Department of Education to implement the plan, Ndungane said.
Media contact:
Logan Maistry
Spokesperson to Premier Ndebele
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
Cell: 083 644 4050
E-mail: maistryl@premier.kzntl.gov.za
Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
20 March 2007
