The perfect couple?
2008-06-27
The Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality has received a lot of bad press over recent years, which might lead residents to believe that no good ever comes from there. However, the municipality has been hiding some of its light under a bushel. Working in partnership with the Palabora Foundation, the municipality has brought benefit to many of the poorest residents of Ba-Phalaborwa and there are plans for more to be done.
Last week, the municipality’s Benjamin Mathebula (Director for Strategic Planning & Information Management) went on a fact-finding tour to some of the area’s early learning centres (ELCs). The tour was led by Naniekie Magoro, who is responsible for 63 ELCs, accompanied by Malesela Letsoalo, the operations manager at the Palabora Foundation. Together they showed Mr Mathebula the challenges faced by some of the ELCs, including lack of water supply.
Water plays an essential part in caring for children. Apart from drinking, washing and cooking, most of the ELCs need water to grow vegetables. The ELCs provide one meal a day for the children; without funding to buy food, they rely on being able to grow it. The ELCs charge fees for looking after the children but many of the families are unable to afford even the R60 or R80 per month that they are asked to send. This leaves them desperately short of funds, even after some of their costs are covered by the Friends of Bambanani and, in some cases, the Palabora Foundation and the Department of Health & Social Welfare. To compound the finance problems, some ELCs suffer from theft, usually of basic food items.
Benjamin Mathebula was keen to fix the water problem. Within minutes of seeing an ELC without a usable water tank, he was on the phone to confirm that the municipality would provide deliveries of water using its water tanker. Mr Mathebula clarified that the municipality did not want to be involved in the ELCs “just for the sake of involvement” but that they would be happy to help if the ELCs communicated any other needs.
The tour took in ELCs in Matiko-Xikaya, Humulani and Makhushane – some of the poorest areas of Ba-Phalaborwa. Facilities at the ELCs vary tremendously. In Humulani, an area populated mainly by former Mozambican refugees in an informal settlement, Tiendleleni 
Vamanana ELC is an unfinished cement brick building with no kitchen. The building and its outside toilet cubicles were funded by Friends of Bambanani, an organisation which attracts donations from people in Holland. The bricks were made by the local people. At the other end of the scale, Matiko-Xikaya’s Hi Ta Sala Navo ELC is an attractively painted building containing several classrooms and a kitchen that sports stoves and a sink. The building was erected by volunteers who had received training on the Palabora Foundation’s construction schemes. Outside it boasts brightly coloured jungle gym equipment (donated by residents through Friends of Bambanani) and a large water tank, which was funded by the Department of Health & Social Welfare.
Naniekie Magoro asked Benjamin Mathebula to express her thanks to the municipality for their assistance with the water. Mr Mathebula pointed out that the municipality enjoys a good relationship with the Palabora Foundation, although they have had their differences at times. He continued, “Of all the companies and NGOs we partner, the Palabora Foundation is the one we work best with”.
The Palabora Foundation and Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality are currently working on several other partnership programmes including the construction of Thusong Service Centre in Selwane and an initiative to promote tourism to Ba-Phalaborwa using the Bollanoto Tourism Information Centre.
Thusong will bring services such as a library, Home Affairs, police, post office and SASSA to the people of Selwane, one of the most remote areas of the municipality. Mr Mathebula is confident that Thusong will be a great success story. “We have done our homework and we have buy-in from the stakeholders”, he said.
Bollanoto has been a controversial story from the start but, with a memorandum of understanding about to be signed by both partners, it looks as though the dream might finally be coming true soon.
Anyone who is interested in contributing funds, food, clothing, equipment or toys to the ELCs should contact Naniekie Magoro on 015 769 5048.
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