Gogo shared dinner with former president

eMBALENHLE – Ms Maphala Gulube is a woman of courage and her focus has always been on education.

This “unsung hero” hails from Ga-Molepo in Limpopo where she grew up before she got married to her late husband Rev Joseph Gulube who was born in Bethal.

Ms Gulube travelled to many places, including Swaziland, where she and her husband worked as missionaries.

In 1969 they found themselves serving at Kinross Mine where they had the opportunity to work with people from different countries who were working at the mine.

“I always had meetings with white women and became friends with one whose husband had a pre-school,” said Ms Gulube. She said they saw a need to open a crèche at the Kinross Mine.

They mobilised residents and shared their thoughts with them and Sasol bought them books.

A challenge was what to do with the physically challenged children and slow learners.

The plan was to begin a school, the Basizeni Learners with Special Educational Needs (LSEN) School, for physically challenged children.

One of the biggest problems was to find teachers for the school, because most teachers were reluctant to teach physically challenged children.

Ms Gulube asked her daughter and daughter-in-law to help out.

The University of South Africa offered free bursaries for teachers of LSEN schools and more people began to be interested.

Ms Gulube made friends with more influential people, especially mine bosses, in order to get donations for the school.

Basizeni is now one of the well-known LSEN schools and their pupils excel in sport, including the basketball team that represented South Africa at the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles, America.

“I heard that the former President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, was going to come to the eMbalenhle Stadium in 1999 and I told myself that it was the opportunity for me to raise issues affecting our community.”

Ms Gulube said at the time there were pupils in various grades who were sharing classrooms for four hours a day.

“I wrote a letter about the shortage of classrooms and went to the stadium.

“I heard the President would be taken to Graceland for breakfast and I said I will hand in my letter so that he can read it while having his breakfast.”

Ms Gulube said she went to the table where the president was sitting and gave him an open letter.

He took it and put it in his jacket pocket.

She received a response from him after three weeks that he will again visit eMbalenhle.

The government in partnership with Sasol handed over a cheque of R2,5 million to build the school and Ms Gulube was afforded the opportunity to choose a suitable location.

Thus the Maphala Gulube Primary School was borne and was named after her.

“My main focus is education and I decided to become a teacher after witnessing that most people, especially those in rural areas, did not have the opportunity to become educated and my mother used to read letters for most mothers of the village.” Ms Gulube was the first principal of Zamokuhle Primary School in 1978 and received many awards for her contribution to the society.

She received an award for her outstanding contribution to education from AM International in 1991, an excelsior award for outstanding achievement in the field of disability in 1993, a merit award for the upliftment and enrichment of the quality of lives of persons with intellectual disability from the Hamlet Place of Hope, the South African Council of the Aged awarded her for outstanding services over many years to older persons in South Africa in 1999, the Mpumalanga Premier Office awarded her for the role she played in the country’s liberation struggle in 2000 and in 2009 the executive mayor of the Govan Mbeki municipality presented her with an award for excellent service to the community and for her contribution in uplifting the lives of other people.

She was also awarded the opportunity to have dinner with the late Nelson Mandela in 2008 at Hyde Park.

This month, Ms Gulube, who is also involved in developing and being an advocate for the elderly, will be celebrating her 90th birthday.