Maureen Barnes
In 1996 Paarl tour guide Cathy Raymond picked up a small group of American tourists for a trip round the winelands. The visitors asked if she would take them to visit a shebeen in Mbekwene township. “I didn’t know how to find a shebeen,” said Raymond, “so I phoned Jongi Frans.”
Frans, who is human relations manager for the Paarl city council, took the group to a shebeen in the kitchen of someone’s home.
The next day two of the Americans, Bill Newton and Dick Johnston from Wyoming, asked to see Raymond and Frans again. “They said they wanted to contribute towards the upliftment of the people … and were particularly concerned with job creation,” said Raymond.
“They didn’t want to give money to a government organisation because they feared it might disappear in administration, smart cars and salaries. They trusted Jongi and myself enough to give us funds, provided we came up with a workable scheme, and handed us $1 000 for our admin costs.”
The couple put the money away. “We didn’t know where to begin,” said Raymond. “There are so many holes in the community – the aged, disabled, children, jobless, homeless, the sick.”
As Frans was already doing voluntary youth work in the community, they decided to work with disadvantaged teenagers. They devised a scheme to assist promising maths students to enable them to get a bursary for study after matric.
“We enlisted the assistance of Master Maths, the tutorial college in Paarl, which agreed to take our students for special maths tuition, and to give us a 20% discount,” said Raymond. “We decided not to ask … for more money but to use the $1 000 to get the project going.”
Suitable students were found with the help of the maths department at the Desmond Tutu High School in Mbekwene. Eventually four students were accepted on the course and all passed their matric with good marks in maths.
The project was given a boost when the Pioneer Food Group became involved. Said Tom Duff, Pioneer’s executive for human resources: “Our [information technology] department employs a large number of specialists and we wanted to assist black matriculants from the Paarl community as part of our employment equity programme.
“When we wanted to sponsor two local matriculants through a sophisticated computer course … the Johnston-Newton Trust became an important resource.”
Two of the maths project’s first four students gained entrance to the course: S’Busiso Masethi (18) who is writing his matric, and Bongani Ngogela (19) who passed matric at the end of last year. The Pioneer bursaries are each worth R40 000.
“We are very pleased that two candidates have been selected and once the youngsters have completed their training they will take up positions at Pioneer,” said Duff.
This week Masethi and Ngogela started vacation jobs at Pioneer, which will assist them when they start their studies next year.
Another of the project’s first four students, Nkululeko Pelem (20), showed such promise that the trust gave him a bursary to take a course on introductory business studies at the Paarl College. “He has just been accepted at the Cape Technikon to study civil engineering next year. We will pay his fees,” said Frans.
Raymond and Frans, with former principal of the Desmond Tutu High School and school inspector Timothy Ndzuzo, are currently selecting suitable applicants for next year. “We are hoping to add another 10 pupils,” said Raymond.
The cherry on the top came two weeks ago when the Johnston-Newton Trustsent another $10 000 for the project.