The general manager for Khoroni Casino Hotel, Mr Albert Eksteen, urged the community and mostly businesses to support education for children as an investment in the future of the country.

Eksteen was speaking during the painting of Mmbara Primary School in Sibasa last week. The project is part of the Paint a School project, launched by Vho Thovhele Midiyavhathu Tshivhase and Gole Mphaphuli in May 2008.

Ms Zena Lamprechts, Khoroni’s PRO, said it was her company’s wish to be involved in initiatives that pertain to with community development. She said it had become a culture for her company to plough back the little they had into the communities around them.  “When the idea of painting schools availed itself, we automatically fell for it. Who are we not to support a visionary project with the blessing of two powerful Vho Thovhele?” She said they identified Mmbara Primary School last year, when they donated some computers.

“While there, we saw the condition of the walls at the school and we decided that we had to do something to improve their situation.” Lamprechts said an amount of R40 000 was used for the painting of the school and staff from Khoroni and the school spent the whole day painting.

Eksteen said they had a commitment as part of their license with the Limpopo Gambling Board to give back 1% of their profits to community development. He said they had decided as management to give a large portion of the proceeds to the development of education and school infrastructure in the immediate vicinity.

“We believe in education as the only weapon that could fight poverty in the country and we will do all we can to improve and help develop education,” he said. Eksteen said they believed the future of the country lay in the youth and they had to do something to improve the learning conditions of the learners. He said they had more projects for schools in the pipeline where they will be giving away computers to the tune of R60 000 before the end of the year.

The circuit manager at Sibasa, Mr. Vhangani Mathalauga said it was through such partnerships as the one with Khoroni that the education of the children could be improved. “As a department, we welcome and appreciate your contribution towards the education of our children. We alone cannot manage to provide all the educational necessities,” he said. Mathalauga said the department was faced with a mammoth task of easing the backlog in terms of building classrooms and other infrastructure and the donation could not have come at a better time.

The principal of the school, Mr Jacobus Howell, was over the moon. He said it was a wonderful gift for the school. Howell said the school does not have money and relies on the private sector for some developments. He said the school still had challenges as they did not have a staff room, science lab, kitchen, paving of the school, administration block, more computers and two extra classes.