From a gravel road winding between hills in the Northern Cape and what is known as the iron town of Limpopo, to the corridors of some of South Africa’s most prestigious schools. This is the journey now being made by 12 exceptional learners from the rural communities that are beneficiaries of the SIOC Community Development Trust (SIOC-cdt).
SIOC-cdt launched its scholarship programme in 2025, targeting high-performing grade 7 learners from Quintile 1 to 3 schools across its five beneficiary municipalities, namely, Gamagara, Ga-Segonyana, Joe Morolong and Tsantsabane in the Northern Cape and Thabazimbi in Limpopo. The initiative was born from a simple but powerful conviction : Talent, not geography nor socio-economic circumstance, should determine opportunity.
“We saw exceptionally bright learners in deep rural areas whose potential needed to be nurtured,” said Lesibana Mashiane SIOC-cdt’s Education Programme Co-ordinator. “We wanted to bridge the gap between the support given to urban learners and those in remote communities.”
Selected through a rigorous process involving district-wide assessments in Mathematics and English, 12 learners were placed at three top Independent Examinations Board (IEB) schools. Five girls at Roedean School for Girls in Johannesburg, three boys at St John’s College in Johannesburg and four learners at St Patrick’s CBC in Kimberley. SIOC-cdt covered all costs – tuition, accommodation, extracurricular activities and a small personal monthly stipend.
The results after just one year exceeded all expectations. The girls at Roedean achieved an average of 73% across subjects, the boys at St John’s averaged 71%, and the St Patrick’s cohort averaged 67% – all this while transitioning from the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) curriculum to the more demanding IEB. One St Patrick’s learner who was placed at 44th in his first term climbed to 8th by the end of the year.
Beyond academics, the transformation was profound. Mr Mashiane described two learners who had arrived at the beginning of the year reserved and anxious, barely making eye contact. By September, after lunching with SIOC-cdt’s CEO and trustees, and meeting regularly with programme staff, those same young people were confident, articulate and visibly changed. “We couldn’t believe these were the same 12 learners we had sent away,” he says.
One learner captured the programme’s spirit when she told co-ordinators, “I now want to study at Cambridge University.” For a child who, without the scholarship, would have been walking no less than 10 kilometres along a gravel road to reach her nearest secondary school, that aspiration is not just a dream, it is the start of a real plan.
The scholarship forms part of SIOC Community Development Trust’s broader education portfolio and reflects longstanding commitment to advance education and unlock opportunity in their beneficiary communities. The programme will support its inaugural cohort through to matric, with plans to consider a new intake once the first cohort’s progress has been fully assessed and evaluated.
The SIOC Community Development Trust (SIOC-cdt) was established in 2006 by Anglo American’s Kumba Iron Ore to invest in the development of the communities in which the business operates. The trust focuses primarily on beneficiary communities adjacent to Kumba Iron Ore’s mining activities to invest significantly in community development projects aimed at ensuring sustainability beyond mining operations.
ByDesign Communications
Some of the learners who benefit from SIOC-cdt’s scholarship programme and representatives from SIOC-cdt.
