“We don’t make excuses, we make a plan.”
Those were the words of Dumisani Manyoni, standing in the scant shade of a tree in the baking heat of Zululand in mid-November.
Dumisani is the principal of Senzokuhle High School, located deep in the hills of Zululand between Hlabisa and Mkuze. Getting there in KhakiBush editor Craig Mitchell’s Land Rover took a long time, but he is a dab hand at the wheel, and his trusty steed is no stranger to gentle meandering — allowing passengers to take in the wondrous sights and sounds along the way.
The incredible Domino Foundation, which impacts the lives of more than 13,500 people in KwaZulu-Natal, dispatched us on a mission to deliver almost a ton of food to pupils attending study camps for their matric exams.
We visited Senzokuhle and Mandlakazi High School, about 14 kilometres apart, in deeply rural areas bordering the Manyoni Private Game Reserve, which helped facilitate the delivery and donation.
Dumisani is old school. His pupils learn from books, and there is no internet connectivity. If he needs to make a call in an emergency, he has to drive up a hill to get reception.
It was heartwarming to speak to him and witness the teachers’ commitment to the study camps. During these camps, pupils move to the school and bunk in their classrooms for three weeks before and during exams. The camps offer intense revision and have dramatically improved results.
At Mandlakazi, the matric pass rate has risen from a woeful 35% in 2016 to 85%. Senzokuhle’s pass rate has been between 80% and 100% for the past few years.
Dumisani puts it down to dedicated teachers. He drives 102 kilometres a day to and from work.
“It can be very challenging here, but you don’t make excuses; you make a plan. We do 18-hour shifts for the camps.”
Zandile Nzimande is the principal of Mandlakazi.
“Thanks to the donations, we can give the children nutritious food at the camps. It helps them a lot. They become very focused. They don’t have as many behavioural problems at the camps. Some don’t come from stable homes. Some live in child-headed households.”
Zandile has been a teacher for 30 years. Good teachers, she says, have strong ethics and are deeply committed to the children.
“They strive for excellence. They work weekends. They care.”
