Gqoboza – 27 August 2014

We faced the downward journey after T M Hani school taking extra precautions to navigate the rough roads. Little did we realise that we were heading for the birth place of Chris Hani. The school was surrounded with many mud walled huts which were in a poor state of repair with many being abandoned as well.

The entrance to the school lead to two brand new school buildings but there were no learners in sight. They were behind the new buildings in classrooms that were in a poor state of repair. There was evidence of an insulation layer of polystyrene but this was long gone in most classrooms exposing the learners to bare metal walls and roof with no protection in winter or summer. Huge snow storms were predicted for later in the week.

Again the right decision was taken to host the demonstration out in the open on some pretty rough ground with a group of learners standing on top of balcony outside the classrooms with the rest surrounding the table.

When we arrived there were only three teachers on the school property with the rest at various meetings for the day. Based on this fact we decided to include all learners from Grades 4 – 9 in the demonstrations.

The location afforded the opportunity to demonstrate wind energy as a light breeze had picked up. The turbine blades were soon spinning around at high speed much to the delight of the learners. The same principles that had been used at the previous school were deployed to reinforce the notion of energy transfer and the importance of renewable energy.

The teachers adopted a different attitude to the learners telling them that they had to answer the questions to avoid test at the end of the presentation. Despite this, a few learners did engage in the demonstration and I am confident that these individuals will go far in life.

On leaving the area we stopped off at the Arthur Mfebe and St Marks Schools to drop off the SD cards with the content for the Tablets.

It was a sad day knowing that all 18 schools were now complete and I will miss the friendly smiles of the learners and teachers. The spirit of Ubuntu is alive and well.

Thank you to Anglo American Platinum for the privilege of making a difference in the lives of the learners and teachers in this community.