Besides the setback he received when the roof of his school, Pragmatic Centre for Science and Technology, was blown away by the wind early last month, Mr Goddard Mugwena is hopeful that his matric pupils will still produce good results, especially in Mathematics and Science as they have done in previous years.

The unfortunate incident at Mugwena’s six classrooms left a big hole in his pocket, as the repairs, already completed, cost him R286 000. This is a huge figure considering that the school is privately owned and it was not insured during the time of the incident.

The other unfortunate part is that the incident happened immediately after Mugwena, well-known for his community building, had just pledged an R850 grant to the family of a suspected ritual murder victim at Mulodi, in Thengwe.

The same family has just received a new house, furniture and groceries from the government recently.

Besides this setback, Mugwena says: “I will still continue honoring the pledge I made to the family for the 12-month period as it was planned before.”

Since the school was established in 2001 at Vuwani junction, the founder and owner, Mugwena, also a former mathematics and science lecturer at the University of Venda, has produced good results in the Dzondo circuit.

The other good thing is that the school, which started with grade 12 from its first year, has been producing good results in mathematics and science, all at higher grade.

In its first year, 13 out of 21 matriculants got exemptions, which made it number one in the Dzondo circuit.

Mugwena has been offering bursaries of between R10 000 and R5 000 to the top pupils in mathematics and science, especially for those scoring distinctions, in his school.

Mugwena admits that the damage to his school has affected his financial plans at the school, but he is quick to point out that they will forge ahead. “This has taken me backwards in my financial planning and other projects, especially the budgets that I wanted to use to motivate my students.

“However, I take this as a natural incident, but this will not in any way affect our results as the incident did not affect our learning process,” says Mugwena.