New hall for Zimasa

There was great excitement and thanksgiving at Zimasa Community School last Friday when the new school hall was officially opened.

Out of five primary schools in the area, Zimasa is now the only school which has a hall, thanks to Garden Cities’ Archway Foundation which worked with the provincial education department to realise the project.

School principal, Fezile Mguqulwa said for years he had been knocking on the doors of the foundation and department pleading with them to build a school hall.

Mr Mguqulwa said school gatherings had had to held in an open space and it had been difficult to host fundraising events.

But through his persistence he managed to steal the hearts of donors and the department and heed his call, he said.

‘’This hall is adding value to the school. I started engaging the leadership of the foundation in 2015 and she always rejected me saying that there are so many schools.

“It was only in 2019 when I realised my pleas were being listened to when the Foundation asked me about the space.

“In 2020 they gave me an approval that the hall would be built. When we wanted to do our school graduation we would be charged R4 400 and that is a lot of money.

“But now that is a thing of the past. I’m very very happy about this because this was the vision we had on the table but I had to go out and look for donors to bring that vision to life assisted by my staff and community,” he said.

Garden Cities’ Archway Foundation chairperson, Myrtle February, said on the day of the officially opening she had experienced overwhelming emotions of gratitude and passion.

She believes that without passion one would not be able to achieve anything, confirming that Mr Mguqulwa had persevered in his requests for assistance.

“We need to create opportunities for our children and we need to think of our children.

“We need to say to our children forget about the past, forget about where you come from because it has has been proven that social circumstances will determine what children will become one day.

“We have built 115 school halls across the province and we have spent over R300 Million in building these halls.

“This hall is supposed to give our children and community dignity,” she said.

Ms February said this is not a gift to the school but rather a reward for what school stands for.

Circuit manager, Anusha Naidoo, said it was not just a hall but an education institution which would play a vital role in uplifting teaching and learning at the school.

Ms Naidoo described the building of the hall as blessings and something that would bring hope to the entire community of Langa.

School Governing Body (SGB) chairperson, Celeka Daniso, applauded the principal's endless efforts to get the Foundation to build the hall and made a commitment to ensure the hall was looked after.