Coal of Africa invests in local school

Since adopting Musina-based Renaissance High School in 2012, Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) mining company has pumped in more than R6 million into improving the conditions of learning in the school.

This includes electrifying the whole school, air-conditioning, construction of steel fencing, the provision of printing equipment and the deployment of 24-hour tight security services.

CoAL’s contribution to uplift the school reached another level when the company handed over four completed, newly built classrooms to the learners, educators, parents and members of the school governing body last Tuesday.

The acting MEC for Education, Mr Jerry Ndou, the mayor of Musina, Cllr Mihloti Ramoyada, and CoAL's chief operating officer, Mr Cobus Bronn, were among the dignitaries who conducted the official handing-over ceremony.

Bronn said it was the responsibility of the company to make sure that communities from the mine’s labour-sending areas were benefiting from the mining activities. He said it was encouraging to note that during the construction of the four classrooms, 27 formerly unemployed local community members were empowered through job opportunities. “Besides improving the learning conditions in this school, we are proud to mention that we successfully transferred skills to local communities who will be able to create jobs for themselves and become employers. As part of our social labour plans, we will continue to give support to different stakeholders to make sure that we contribute in developing the areas in which we operate.”

MEC Ndou commended CoAL for supplementing Government’s efforts of infrastructure development in schools. “Although school infrastructure is a challenge across our province, we are happy to note that we have partners who are prepared to contribute to resolving this challenge. It is very important to invest in the education of our children because they are the future leaders of our country. We hope other companies will learn from Coal of Africa Limited that it is important to support the government to bring about a better life for all.”

Mayor Ramoyada said that legislation such as the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act had established targets against which mining companies should measure their performance on social development of surrounding and labour-sending communities. "I’m happy to pronounce that CoAL is making good progress towards achieving these goals.”

School principal Mashudu Sithole was over the moon about the new classrooms. He thanked CoAL for their gesture of improving learning conditions in his school.

Date:23 April 2015

By: News Correspondent

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