South Africa Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe led a deleigation which included, Deputy Minister of Basic Education Enver Surty and Premier of the Eastern Cape Noxolo Kiviet, who revisited Lutshaya High School in Lusikisiki on 16 January 2013 to discuss progress made after their first visit in January 2012.
Speaking during the event, Motlanthe said, “Our job is to ensure enough supportive material for you to learn and that we will do.”
“We go to schools where we can make a difference and add value, we have the ability to change difficult situations, if Gauteng can change so can we.”
In January 2012 a number of issues were raised by staff, the School Governing Body (SGB) and community members at Lutshaya high School.
Their three main concerns were:
- insufficient number of teachers
- non existence of school nutrition programme
- no scholar transport.
The report back by the school was a happy one. They excitedly announced that the School Nutrition Programme runs on a daily basis and their learners now have Scholar Transport. They are still in the process of dealing with insufficient teachers.
2012 issues are now running smoothly and new issues were raised for this year. The biggest concern was for a bridge to be built, as learners cannot attend school when it is raining.
Every year PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) holds a golf day fundraiser, and Jacques Eybers from PwC made a pledge to the school, “All funds raised on that day will be donated to Lutshaya High School plus we will match the funds raised.
We will coordinate the most appropriate application of these funds with the school and make ensure optimum impact.”
Eybers also said, “We will talk to some of our friends in the engineering field, e.g. Bigen Africa, and see how we can assist in finding a solution (with other stakeholders) to fixing the bridge.”
The Presidential Office will return in March to analyse the progress been made.
