The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited’s (SANRAL) Skills Development Unit has hosted an induction for recipients of its Scholarship and Bursary programme. The event took place at the International Convention Centre in East London, in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. Forty-eight recipients are receiving scholarships and bursaries in the current financial year.
This was the first induction since the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020. The reintroduction of Scholarship and Bursary Induction events is a significant step forward to rekindle physical engagement with learners and their parents. Programme participants received information regarding the claiming process and were given an opportunity to engage with SANRAL on points of clarity.
The Scholarship and Bursary Induction historically focused on civil engineering with stringent qualifying criterion. Now the approach is more broadly education focused, with scholarships targeting Grade 8 to 12 learners with 60% aggregates as opposed to the 70% focus on maths and science learners. The aim of the bursaries is to give more access to tertiary studies.
Hugo Kircher, a bursary recipient and now candidate engineer employed by SANRAL, gave a glowing testimony. He attributed his current success to SANRAL’s scholarship and bursary programme, which sponsored his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch. He encouraged learners to take full advantage of all the opportunities offered.
Ms Welekazi Ndika, SANRAL Southern Region Stakeholder Coordinator, encouraged learners to focus on their educational goals and to be mindful of the distractions that plague their peer group.
“This opportunity came with such high expectations and relief for me as a single parent. I am grateful to SANRAL for supporting my son’s education,” said Siphelele Mazwayi, mother to scholarship recipient, Qhayiya Mazwayi.
