National police commissioner Gen Bheki Cele presented an administration block and a computer room to the Makhuvha Primary School at Makhuvha Village outside Thohoyandou last Thursday.

The police commissioner also gave uniforms to poor pupils as well as soccer and netball balls to the school.

The administration block, which was built for more than R500 000, was the result of an initiative by Limpopo police chief Lt Gen Calvin Sengani. He, with the assistance of the local police stations, raised the amount.

Cele commended Sengani for the initiative and said it chartered new waters in that more than just fighting crime, police were also ploughing back into the community. He said it was one of the best initiatives ever by the SAPS. “We will see if this initiative cannot become a national campaign and be extended to other communities, so that policemen plough back into the communities that raised them,” said Cele.

He said the police had an obligation to see to it that the next generation was better off than the one before them.

Lt Gen Sengani completed his Std 2 at the school. “When I visited the school last year, pupils asked me when I was retiring and I said in two years’ time. They then asked what I had done for the school, since I had learned there,” said Sengani, who told them he would come back.

“It is known that the Department of Education faces serious challenges of infrastructure, so this assistance from the police has come in handy," said Dr Gerson Rambiyana, head of Vhembe Education. Rambiyana said that he appreciated the fact that although it was not the core function of the police to build schools, they had made an important contribution.

The principal of the school, Mr Pfuluwani Matsheketsheke, said the donation was one the best things to have happened to their school in recent times. “We will take good care of this donation and we have already employed personnel to look after the infrastructure,” he said.