Sitting on bricks and sharing desks is now a thing of the past for pupils from Siyangempumelelo High School in Kwa Ceza village, KwaZulu- Natal. The School received desks, chairs and stationary from the R100 000 prize money they received as the 2010 Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Champions.
The unveiling of the goods happened at the school on Friday, 26 August and there to celebrate with the school were representatives from Sanlam, the Motsepe Family Foundation, the Ubuntu-Botho Development Trust, the South African Schools Football Association (SASFA) and the KwaZulu Natal Department of Education and the local Chief.
In accordance to the rules of the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup all prize money is used to fund legacy projects that will benefit the school as a whole. In the case of Siyangempumelelo they requested 150 double desks, 75 chairs, 5 High back leather chairs, 3 chalkboards and 1 flip chart.
School Principal, Ndzumo Sibisi, conveyed his heartfelt appreciation for what the school received: “This is all going to ensure that our school functions like any other school. This village has very limited infrastructure and things have been very tough as we have over 850 students. At times we used to close school early for grade 10 and 11 learners in order to have enough chairs and tables for our afternoon classes with the grade 12’s. Now the students can spend more time at school and I am sure our Matric pass rate will subsequently get even better.”
The school has produced outstanding school results for the past three years despite their circumstances: 82 % pass rate in 2008, 94.2 % past rate in 2009 and 100 % pass rate last year with 5 of their students receiving more than one distinction. Sibisi believes that his learners will now function better in their new environment.
Team manager, Wethu Nxumalo, praised his team for making this possible: “Our football team has done the school proud. I cannot express in words my gratitude to the Sanlam and the Motsepe Family Foundation for this tournament that does so much for schools in South Africa.”
Siyangempumelelo first competed in the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup in 2008; they have won the Provincial finals and therefore competed in the National Finals once, in 2010.
Run under the auspices of the South African Schools Football Association (SASFA), the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup is the biggest schools football tournament in the country with the most prize money which is R3.4million. The winner gets R1 million, R600 000 for the runners-up, R500 000 and R400 000 for third- and fourth-place finishers respectively. Each school that wins their Provincial final receives R100 000.
