Christmas came early for Makanyu Primary School´s pupils, following the delivery of schools shoes to them by a charity organization.

Bobs for Good Foundation delivered 283 pairs of schools shoes to all the learners at the school last Tuesday morning, following a story that was published by a national newspaper in which it was indicated that 200 learners and their parents were still waiting for ANCYL president Julius Malema to fulfill his promise of donating shoes to them.

Malema made the promise on January 28, 2009 when he visited the school.

The Bobs for Good Foundation, however, decided to help the school and delivered 283 pairs of new shoes, instead of the 200 promised by Malema.

The foundation, which specializes in donating shoes to needy school children in the country, was founded by former Springbok captain Bob Skinstad and his friend, Ron Rutland, together with Matt Botha and Dave Ashman, last year.

Rutland said they decided to donate the shoes for children at Makanyu Primary, at Ha-Mphego village outside Thohoyandou, in Limpopo, after reading about the pupils´ plight. “Shoes give pride, hope and dignity to children. They also give physical protection as many of these children walk long distances to school,” said Rutland.

Rutland, who was accompanied by his co-directors, Botha and Ashman, together with Desiree van der Walt, DA leader in Limpopo, who contributed R5 000 to the foundation to help with the donation of the shoes, said they flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg and drove to Makanyu to make sure that the promise of delivering shoes to the kids was fulfilled.

“Children are our future; if you do not give them hope, you are destroying our future,” said Rutland.

Rutland said he believed there were many things that rural people did not have. He said he hoped that their gesture would encourage others to help in areas of need wherever they could. “It is touching to see that rural kids still walk for kilometers to go to school, which is not good. It is more painful that some of these kids have to walk barefoot for such long distances. But I hope things will change if everyone of us does something, no matter how small it can be,” said Rutland.

"I am grateful that the promise has finally been fulfilled. I believe our kids will no longer hesitate to come to school during winter now as they have shoes,” said school principal Ramanyimi, while the chairperson of the School Governing Body, Mr Mmboniseni Netshivhumbe, said he was speechless about the delivery of the shoes for the children.