MTN Eswatini, through MTN Foundation and Swaziland Empowerment Limited (SEL) have collaborated with the Ministry of Education and Micro Projects for the construction of an administration block and three teachers’ houses at Magojela High School.
The project worth E1.3 million consist of a construction of an administration block, two-bedroom house for the head teacher, and semi-detached staff houses which are all expected to be completed by November this year.
Both organizations contributed E450 000 towards this project with MTN forking out E100 000, while SEL invested E350 000, while the rest has been invested by the ministry of education and Micro-Projects.
The project was born out of an observation made by MTN and SEL after successfully sinking a borehole for the school that was clearly in dire need for water last year. The partners identified the need to put up these structures after realizing that teachers were using a container as their administration office, and most teachers relied on homesteads next to the school-for accommodation.
The school started operating in 2016 and it had 12 teachers and the Principal, Vusi Sukati gave away a house allocated to him to three teachers who had no accommodation to share it.
Sukati has been commuting daily-from Mpembekati (Manzini) to Magojela.
“It had been financially and physically draining, but giving up was not an option for me, because I wanted to leave a mark here. I wanted the school to start operating for the benefit of young people and the community here,” he said.
Sukati thanked MTN, SEL and partners for coming to the community’s rescue again.
“We are so grateful now that we are becoming a proper school. We hope this will contribute to the improvement of educational outcomes-through better results,” he said.
Despite the challenges it faced, last year, Magojela was named the second most improved school in the Manzini region.
“The new administration block will relieve the class that we were now using as the container then became small for us. Our next project will be adding a science laboratory, and this will help us to extend our classes up to Form Five,” he said.
He said they were also grateful that amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, they have enough water supply to protect the health, safety and well-being of pupils and teachers when schools re-open.
“This is another reason why we really thank The Ministry of Education, Micro-Projects, MTN and SEL for assisting us with the borehole last year. We now have access to close to 3 000 litres of clean water per day. This will make it easier for us to protect the health, safety and well-being of pupils and teachers when schools reopen,” he said.
MTN Eswatini Corporate Affairs Manager Mandla Luphondvo said they would continue working with like-minded partners to complement government’s efforts to improve the quality of education in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
“Supporting the provision of quality education is one of the pillars of the work that MTN does in communities, the others being health and enterprise development. MTN is of the view that if these areas are supported, they will enhance the country’s potential for growth,” he said.
He assured that MTN Eswatini remained committed to partnerships with both the public and private sector to continue driving national development.