The Limpopo Department of Education and Advocate Ngoako Ramatlhodi, Minister of Mineral Resources, South Africa, inaugurated the Ratanang Hostel at the Ratanang Special School in Blouberg, in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, at a ceremony held last week, De Beers announced.

“De Beers Consolidated Mines contributed R7.2 million to the rehabilitation of the hostel, which provides educational support and care to students with learning difficulties, after it was damaged by severe storms in 2011,” the Company said in a press statement. “Ratanang Special School is one of a few specialist schools in Limpopo that caters for students with average to serious learning difficulties.”

De Beers, and its employees from the Venetia mine located nearby, have a long standing relationship with the school. The Company had earlier partnered with the Limpopo Education Development Trust to build the school.  De Beers had contributed R 6 million of the total expenditure on the structures amounting to R 17 million; with the Department of Education contributing the remaining R 11 million. “The company’s additional investment of R 7.2 million will ensure that the structure now is safe and suitable for the learners,” De Beers said.

De Beers has also contributed to other educational institutions in the area as part of its support to the Department of Education’s national agenda to provide basic and specialist education to South African children. “Through the Rural School Development Programme, the company has already constructed eleven schools in Limpopo, with last month’s opening of the Grootpan Community Crèche being a recent example,” the Company added.

“In 2014, Venetia Mine spent 89 per cent of its total working budget on Historically Disadvantaged South African (HDSA) suppliers,” said Phillip Barton, Chief Executive, De Beers Consolidated Mines, at the opening. “It is a little known fact that 34 per cent of these suppliers are located in the mainly rural Limpopo Province and 96 per cent of these are HDSA.”

He added: “To say mines support communities and communities benefit from mining is a reality I hope to see expanded as the years go on.”

De Beers invested R29.1 million towards education last year, of which R14.5 million was spent on educational programmes and educational infrastructure in Limpopo.