Lerekguring Combined School gets a ‘Mandela library’

One of South Africa’s most remotely located primary schools now sports a brand-new library, donated through the Mandela School Library Project.

Children travel up to 40km, one way, to attend Lerekguring Combined School, which operates from an abandoned boarding school near the Botswana border in Limpopo.

The school is in a marginalised part of the country, but principal MJ Lamola is very proud of his school, which prospers in harsh and limited conditions.

Now the school has a library, a borehole and a basketball court, all delivered through the efforts of the school governing body, Kaefer Thermal Contracting Services, which is doing work at nearby Medupi power station, and Eskom, which owns the power station.

Kaefer and Eskom sponsored the delivery of the library and another two libraries, at Kgomo-Mokgalo Primary School and at Baphoting Primary School. All three schools are in northern Limpopo.

It is hoped the “Mandela library” will boost the already significant level of literacy at this school of determined pupils.

“It is heartwarming to see that the level of literacy in the latest three schools where we have delivered libraries, all in Limpopo, was well above our expectations and indeed at a level where we would want many other schools closer to the main cities, who have far greater access to reading materials and other facilities, to be,” a library project team member says.

“In the words of Mr Mandela, ‘it is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another’.”