Retired businessman, Patilizwe “Pat” Mdoda, says that although his children went to prominent schools in the Gauteng province, it has always been his dream to build a school on a par with those, in terms of infrastructure, in his home village of Ncembu in Tsolo.
Mdoda, through the Mdoda Family Trust, has made his dream a reality, by building a state-of-the-art Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre adjacent to Ncembu Primary School as a gift to his community.
The facility, named Ncembu Early Childhood Development Centre, will be officially opened as part of the international Nelson Mandela Day celebrations on July 18.
Ncembu Primary School, then classified as a Junior Secondary School, is the same school where Mdoda was a learner from Standard 3 to 6 [Grades 5 to 8] while it was still made up of rondavel mud huts.
“It has always been my wish to see children from my village study in facilities that are at the same standard as the schools my children went to, and the Ncembu ECD centre is part of bridging that gap between the so-called Model C schools and those in rural areas,” said Mdoda.
The facility boasts amenities such as an administration building with a library, a sick bay, a computer lab, and a secure room for valuable school supplies.
It also has a classroom building with two classrooms that can each hold up to 30 learners and a storage room, a services building with a kitchen and storeroom, four children’s restrooms, one adult restroom and an additional overflow classroom that can hold 15 learners.
Automotive company, Motus, has also pledged to supply the facility’s library with books.
Mdoda will also be taking two teachers from the new facility to Johannesburg to be trained in LEGO learning techniques.
He says that the decision to officially hand over the facility to the community on July 18, dubbed Mandela Day, is an honour to the late statesman’s love for children and education.
