Deputy Minister for Water and Environmental Affairs, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, MP, will hand over 250 school desks to Maatla Primary School on Tuesday, 29 January 2013, in Hoedspruit, Limpopo.
During the month of July last year, the Deputy Minister adopted Maatla Primary School in honour of former statesman Nelson Mandela. It was at that time that she also commissioned a needs assessment at the school which clearly indicated that there is a dire need for school desks amongst other needs.
These desks are made out of biomass from cleared Invasive Alien Plants and manufactured at the Department of Environmental Affairs’ Working for Water Eco Furniture factory situated in KwaZulu-Natal. The Working for Water programme has piloted value-added industry options, in partnership with the KwaZulu-Natal Invasive Alien Species Programme (KZN IASP).
These initiatives have shown the viability of the approach of utilizing invasive alien biomass to create jobs, in making value-added products relevant to Government’s needs, and reducing the cost of clearing the invasive plants.
The product that has become the short-term major focus has been the manufacture of school desks. High-quality, durable, solid-wooden desks are being manufactured for less than half of what schools are currently paying for chipboard desks that last a fraction of the time of the Eco-desks. At R420-00 per school desk, these costs of the Eco-desks include the full costs of harvesting the wood.
Media is invited to attend the handover as follows:
Date: 29 January 2013
Venue: Maatla Primary School, Hoedspruit, Maruleng Local Municipality
Time: 9h00
For RSVP and media queries contact:
Peter Mbelengwa
Cell: 082 611 8197
E-mail: mbelengwap@dwa.gov.za
