Two hundred learners from a Sydenham, Durban, primary school displaced from four classrooms
rendered structurally unsound by April’s devastating flooding are back in school following a donation
of mobile classrooms.
The donation of four mobile classrooms, collectively valued at R800 000, was made to Spearman
Road Primary School by the South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT).
Speaking at a recent event to mark the official handover of the new classrooms, SAMCT
representative, Mr Gaff Osman, said: “Nature can be fickle and is non-discriminatory in wreaking
havoc with, very often, the disadvantaged and most vulnerable communities in our society being the
worst affected.”
The floods in KwaZulu-Natal earlier this year caused billions of Rands in damage and played havoc
with an already-labouring economy. It also had huge social implications, not least of which included
the provision of education, with hundreds of schools being damaged, leaving teachers and learners
floundering in the wake of the flood.
He said: “Spearman Road Primary School, here in Sydenham, was – unfortunately – one of those
educational institutions to have suffered the ravages of April’s floods. Raging water undermined the
school’s main classroom block rendering it a no-go zone due to the severity of structural damage
incurred, water streamed through the ceilings of other classrooms wrecking equipment and the
school’s boundary walls collapsed.”
A Public Works assessment rendered four classrooms unusable due to the potential for collapse and
with some 600 schools in the region affected by the extreme weather, no indication could be given
as to when the situation here could or would be remedied. This left 200 Spearman Road Primary
School learners displaced and falling behind in their studies.
“The school’s plight and dire need for an immediate solution in order to again accommodate all its
learners was one the South African Muslim Charitable Trust simply could not ignore. We accordingly
moved quickly to ensure the least possible disruption to the learners’ normal routine and overall
educational development, introducing four new mobile classrooms to replace those rendered
structurally insecure.”
“In support of the teachers and to make their lesson preparation activities a little easier, given the
extent of water-damaged equipment losses, we additionally provided the school with a new
photocopier,” Mr Osman said.
The SAMCT was created in 2008, the result of a partnership between Old Mutual Unit Trusts and Al
Baraka Bank, for the creation, marketing and distribution of a suite of Shariah Funds.
This has ensured that the South African Muslim Charitable Trust is the beneficiary of this Shariah
suite of funds, enabling it to provide funding, services and other resources for the improvement of
the lives of the vulnerable, deprived and disadvantaged. It has been singularly successful in
delivering sizeable assistance solutions throughout South Africa – irrespective of race or religion –
and continues to work to support needy organisations in the fields of social development, poverty
alleviation, healthcare and education.
Mr Osman added: “In view of this, we recognised Spearman Road Primary School’s predicament an
ideal opportunity to offer our services in the interest of restoring the smooth-running of the school
and its teaching programme, thus ensuring minimal disruption to the education of the 200 learners
left without classrooms when the flood waters receded.”
“These classrooms will make sure that learners here are once again able to attend school and
receive the education they deserve and which, by a quirk of nature, they had been denied.”
For more information about SAMCT or its Spearman Road Primary School mobile classrooms
donation, please contact:
Rasheeda Motala
Social Responsibility Officer
Tel: 084 506 2280
Email: samct@samct.co.za