MINISTER of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Collins Chabane has urged the Lemana High School alumni to plough back into the school and make sure that it returns to its academic excellence.
Chabane was speaking on behalf of President Jacob Zuma at Elim outside Makhado, in Limpopo, during the historic school's project event on Saturday.
He appealed to the schools' alumni occupying important positions in society not to just enjoy the status of their alma mater.
He said that thanks to missionaries who built schools such as Lemana, blacks were exposed to education and this became an essential tool to engage the world of the oppressor.
"So it is important that Lemana reclaims its role of empowering men and women in this country to assume various roles in society," Chabane said.
He said the government had come to initiate a pilot project with Lemana and eight other schools since it appreciated the role they had played.
He cited a number of former pupils from such schools, who later in life played a huge part in the genesis of the liberation struggle in South Africa.
They included leaders such as Sol Plaatjie, Pixley Seme and the Richard Mashabane, who had all played a role in the ANC when it was started.
"Mozambique would be poorer without Eduardo Mondlane, who was a learner at Lemana before going home to found Frelimo in 1962, the party that led the Mozambicans to freedom in 1975," Chabane said.
He urged pupils at the school to take their studies seriously. He also asked those who were once pupils there - and were now pillars of society - to help their alma mater.
"The school has a rich history because it had produced people such as Chief Justice George Maluleke and Muxe Nkondo, former rector of the University of Venda," Chabane said.
He said with the planned expansion of the school to include FET (Further Education and Training) vocational subjects, it had much potential to expand education in South Africa, he said.
The executive director of Historic Schools Restoration Project, Njongonkulu Ndungane, said the idea was to make schools such as Lemana like yeast that would permeate all around them.
Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale said the province would make funds available for the project.
The initial buildings were deserted and the idea is to revive them and make it a boarding school, where people would send their kids to stay in hostels as in the past.
The school was started in 1906 by Swiss missionaries.
A pupil, Vukosi Maluleke, said he and his schoolmates were inspired to be associated with an institution that had such a rich history.
Remember your school - Minister
MINISTER of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Collins Chabane has urged the Lemana High School alumni to plough back into the school and make sure that it returns to its academic excellence.
Chabane was speaking on behalf of President Jacob Zuma at Elim outside Makhado, in Limpopo, during the historic school's project event on Saturday.
He appealed to the schools' alumni occupying important positions in society not to just enjoy the status of their alma mater.
He said that thanks to missionaries who built schools such as Lemana, blacks were exposed to education and this became an essential tool to engage the world of the oppressor.
"So it is important that Lemana reclaims its role of empowering men and women in this country to assume various roles in society," Chabane said.
He said the government had come to initiate a pilot project with Lemana and eight other schools since it appreciated the role they had played.
He cited a number of former pupils from such schools, who later in life played a huge part in the genesis of the liberation struggle in South Africa.
They included leaders such as Sol Plaatjie, Pixley Seme and the Richard Mashabane, who had all played a role in the ANC when it was started.
"Mozambique would be poorer without Eduardo Mondlane, who was a learner at Lemana before going home to found Frelimo in 1962, the party that led the Mozambicans to freedom in 1975," Chabane said.
He urged pupils at the school to take their studies seriously. He also asked those who were once pupils there - and were now pillars of society - to help their alma mater.
"The school has a rich history because it had produced people such as Chief Justice George Maluleke and Muxe Nkondo, former rector of the University of Venda," Chabane said.
He said with the planned expansion of the school to include FET (Further Education and Training) vocational subjects, it had much potential to expand education in South Africa, he said.
The executive director of Historic Schools Restoration Project, Njongonkulu Ndungane, said the idea was to make schools such as Lemana like yeast that would permeate all around them.
Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale said the province would make funds available for the project.
The initial buildings were deserted and the idea is to revive them and make it a boarding school, where people would send their kids to stay in hostels as in the past.
The school was started in 1906 by Swiss missionaries.
A pupil, Vukosi Maluleke, said he and his schoolmates were inspired to be associated with an institution that had such a rich history.
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