Empty desk, full potential: Ruta Sechaba Foundation calls on corporate South Africa to sponsor tomorrow’s stars

The Ruta Sechaba Foundation, which has funded over 3 000 scholarships for talented learners from low-income households, showcases the real impact of investing in potential through its Youth Month campaign.

The foundation set up an outdoor classroom at Nelson Mandela Square - each desk telling a success story, except one left empty, calling on corporate South Africa to help rewrite the future by sponsoring the next generation of world-class talent.

Natasha Mkhize, executive of strategic relations at Ruta Sechaba, said: “We are urging companies throughout the country to emulate the likes of PSG, Absa, Capitec and Exxaro in sponsoring bright young learners who need nothing more than the chance to show what they can become.”

Since 2016, Ruta Sechaba, which means ‘educating the nation’ in Sesotho, has awarded scholarships to over 3 000 learners at Curro schools. These learners are selected based on academic and sporting excellence, leadership potential, and a commitment to community upliftment. The foundation’s impact is reflected in its impressive 2024 results, with a 100% matric pass rate and 94% of learners qualifying for university entrance. Two scholarship recipients were among Curro’s top 10 national performers last year.

Among the foundation’s success stories are:

• A Grade 12 learner who won an Olympic silver medal as part of South Africa’s 4x100m relay team in Paris in 2024 and recently set a personal best of 9.94 seconds, making him the world’s fastest under-20 athlete this year.

• A recent matriculant now studying motorsport engineering at Oxford Brookes University in the UK, leading the university’s motor-racing fluid dynamics team, with ambitions to design championship-winning Formula 1 cars.

• A former head girl and scientist who represented South Africa at an international youth science competition in Beijing and is now pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree at Wits University after recently performing at a major Cape Town concert.

This Youth Month, the foundation’s outdoor classroom display symbolises the opportunities unlocked through sponsorship. However, an empty desk in the display serves as a stark reminder of the millions of learners whose potential remains untapped amid a stretched education system expected to accommodate 1.2 million more learners by 2030.

Mkhize warns of the wider consequences: “Several studies have found that the education system produces graduates who often cannot meet basic literacy and numeracy requirements for available jobs, even at entry levels. And because gaps in education limit legitimate earning opportunities, criminal activity becomes relatively more attractive.”

She further explains the economic imperative, citing a North-West University study analysing 26 years of data: “People who completed their Grade 12 (with matric certificate) and bachelor’s degrees contribute positively to South African economic growth.”

The foundation proposes a scalable solution: if each of the 270 JSE-listed companies sponsors 100 learners annually, within five years there will be 13 000 new bright young South Africans ready to contribute to the country’s future. Involving unlisted companies would further amplify this impact, improving skills, expanding markets, stabilising communities, and reducing inequality.

Ruta Sechaba’s campaign invites corporate South Africa to help “fill that empty desk this Youth Month” and enable more learners to go “from the classroom to world-class.”