Former SABC journo empowers children empowers children

Date: 24 June 2011 By: Ndivhuwo Musetha

As another way of investing in the future, former SABC radio journalist-turned-businessman Dan Mbulaheni Singo is empowering young children with building skills.

Singo (53) was retrenched by SABC´s Phalaphala FM radio station in March 1996. Singo saw this as an opportunity to start his own construction company, Micromath Trading 189. The company started in 2001, and one of its first projects was the constructing of Mapule Sindani Primary School in Witbank, Mpumalanga. The company also built several schools in the same area and several double-storey houses in Gauteng.

In 2006, Singo was given a tender to build offices for the Musina Municipality in Musina, his home town. Today, he is busy with the construction of 230 Chinese shops in a new shopping centre situated along the N1 road from Musina to Zimbabwe.

Singo also started training children between the ages of eight and 12 how to do construction work at Skoonplaas, Musina. "I was coming from work to my home, Skoonplaas, one day when I saw a group of about six boys playing in the street, building small houses with mud. I asked them to destroy their houses and I started showing them the proper way of building houses," said Singo.

"I also taught the children how to build a straight wall. To my surprise, the number of children increased to 20 the following day. Today, I have more than 25 children who gather there to learn about brickwork every day after school," he added.

The group of youngsters consists of girls and boys. "I am happy about the interest the children are showing in this project, because it has now turned into an after-school centre," said Singo proudly. According to him, there is a need for a further education and training (FET) centre, which is why he started this project.

He added that the children can already lay a brick properly, and they are still going to be taught how to do plastering, management and life skills in the second and third phases.

One of the children, Frans Milanzi (10), has already shown that he has serious talent for building. "I just established that Milanzi, who is in Grade 3 at Bonwaudi Primary, has inherited his grandfather´s skills. The late White Milazi was a respected builder here in Musina," said Singo.

Mr Joe Zhou, an interpreter between the Chinese and the local community at the project where Singo is working, said he was impressed to see children as young as eight being trained. "This is a very good initiative. I hope the South African government will take this as an eye-opener and introduce projects like this at school," said Zhou.

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Ndivhuwo Musetha

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