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News - Date: 12 November 2010
The Minister in the Presidency responsible for performance monitoring and evaluation, Mr Collins Chabane, emphasized that the government supports a bid to make Lemana and other missionary schools return to their former glory.
Speaking during the historic schools project event on Saturday in Elim, Chabane said that although the motive of missionaries who built schools like Lemana was acculturation, blacks were exposed to education and this became an essential tool to engage the world of the oppressor.
He urged the alumni of the school who are occupying important positions in society not to just enjoy the status of their alma mater, but to plough back into the school and make sure that it returns to academic excellence. “It is important that Lemana reclaim its role of empowering men and women in this country to assume various roles in society,” said Chabane.
He said the government had come to initiate a project, piloting with Lemana and eight other schools, as it appreciated the role they played. He cited a number of pupils at those schools who played a part in the genesis of the liberation struggle in South Africa. They included leaders such as Sol Plaatjie, Pixley Seme and the Reverend Richard Mashabane. "All of them played a role in the ANC when it was started, he said. “Mozambique would be poorer without Dr Eduardo Mondlane, who was a learner at Lemana before he went home to found the Frelimo party in 1962, the party that led the Mozambicans to freedom in 1975,” said Chabane.
He urged pupils at the school to take their studies seriously. “The school has a rich history because it also produced people like Chief Justice George Maluleke and Professor Muxe Nkondo, former rector of the University of Venda,” said Chabane. He said with the planned expansion of the school to include FET vocational subjects, it had a lot of potential to expand education in South Africa.
The executive director of the Historic Schools Restoration Project, Archbishop Njongokulu Ndungane, said the idea was to make schools such as Lemana like yeast, so that they influence all around them.
Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale, who was accompanied by members of his cabinet, said the province would make funds available for the project. “The initial buildings were deserted and the idea is to revive them and make it a boarding school where people can send their kids to stay in hostels, like it happened in the past,” he said.The school was started in 1906 by Swiss missionaries.
A pupil, Vukosi Maluleke, said he and his school mates were inspired to be associated with an institution with such history.
The event was attended by, amongst others, the executive mayor of the Vhembe district municipality Cllr Falaza Mdaka, Makhado Mayor Cllr Mavhungu Luruli, councillors, chiefs and businessmen.
Peter Muthambi graduated from the University of Venda with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Studies. He started writing stories for Limpopo Mirror as well as national papers in 2006. He loves investigative journalism and is also a very keen photographer.
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