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News - Date: 30 September 2005
MUSINA – The Venetia operation of De Beers Consolidated Mines, together with the Blouberg and Musina Municipalities, handed over approximately 800 scientific calculators to students at the Musina High School and Matsela Secondary School – two under-resourced learning institutions in rural Northern Limpopo.
This initiative will not only help the Grade 10 to 12 students in their preparation for the upcoming year end examinations, but is also in line with the Education Department’s quest to increase black represention in Science, Technology and Engineering-related fields. Musina High School and Matsela Secondary School are the next to benefit from such a project, after approximately 400 students from Matswake Secondary School received calculators during the project’s launch year, 2004.
Some of the dignitaries at the event included the executive committee from the mine, mayors from both Blouberg and Musina, representatives from the Provincial Education Department, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu).
Commenting on De Beers’ role in education, mine operations manager Dieter Haage said that, through their partnerships with various key stakeholders, particularly in the health and education sectors in local and provincial government departments, the company continued its focus on more pro-active and direct investments within the mining communities. “These partnerships have sought to design social and developmental programmes that address local realities in consultation with beneficiary communities. As a result, a more efficient and sustainable service is ultimately delivered to those who need this most. The sum of our combined efforts is greater than the parts.”
With 41% of their total funding already going into education-based initiatives, De Beers has a long history of corporate social investment, which includes the Musina (Catholic Institute of Education) School governance programme, which helps educators and school governing bodies harness their leadership and management skills as well as the R8 million jointly funded Limpopo Rural Schools Project with the Limpopo Department of Education and communities among others.
Haage concluded that, “Through active involvement in these social investment programmes, De Beers has further reinforced the company’s commitment in all its labour sending areas”.
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