Funda Wande partners with award-winning literacy icon to open reading corners in every classroom at Mxhaka Senior Primary School, Ngqamakwe — a direct response to South Africa's reading crisis, in which 81% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning.

Eastern Cape: 20 July 2026 - In celebration of Mandela Day, literacy organisation Funda Wande will bring one of South Africa's most celebrated storytellers, Dr Gcina Mhlophe, to Mxhaka Senior Primary School in Ngqamakwe, Eastern Cape, on 24 July 2026, to help launch reading corners in every classroom from Grade R to Grade 7 turning 67 minutes of service into a resource that will serve the school for years to come.

The initiative lands against a sobering national backdrop. The 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) found that 81% of South African Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning in any of the country's 11 official languages, the worst result of the 57 countries assessed. Funda Wande's Mandela Day activation is a direct, hands-on response: giving children in one of the country's under-resourced rural schools daily access to quality, culturally relevant books, and a joyful reason to open them.

The centrepiece of the day will be a live storytelling and story-reading session led by Dr Mhlophe; an author, playwright, poet and activist who holds multiple honorary doctorates, has had her work translated into languages spanning German, French, Japanese and Braille, and whose birthday, 24 October, is officially recognised in South Africa as National Storytelling Day. Through her session, Mxhaka's learners will experience storytelling as both entertainment and invitation: proof that reading can be a source of joy, not just a subject to be tested on.

The event builds on three years of Mandela Day reading-corner initiatives Funda Wande has run in Foundation Phase classrooms. In 2026, the programme expands both geographically reaching a school in one of the Eastern Cape's most under-resourced districts and in scope, covering every grade from R to 7 for the first time. Held six days after Nelson Mandela International Day itself, the Mxhaka event extends the spirit of the 67 minutes into sustained, lasting classroom change.

Partners, educators and volunteers on site will dedicate their own 67 minutes to physically assembling the reading corners and shelving the books alongside Dr Mhlophe and the Funda Wande team.

Madiba taught us that education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world. Every book we place on a shelf at Mxhaka today is part of that fight. We want children here to fall in love with reading — not because they have to, but because a story finally spoke to them." Fundi Sayo (Head of Eastern Cape Programmes) Funda Wande

A story can change how a child sees themselves. When children see their own languages, their own faces and their own villages in a book, reading stops being homework and becomes home. That is what we are building at Mxhaka." Dr Gcina Mhlophe, Storyteller and Literacy Activist

Event Details

What: 67 Minutes for Mandela Day — Reading Corner Launch with Dr Gcina Mhlophe

Where: Mxhaka Senior Primary School, Ngqamakwe, Eastern Cape

When: Friday 24 July 2026 – 08h00 t0 15h00

Media are welcome to attend. Interviews with Dr Gcina Mhlophe and the Funda Wande team can be arranged on request.

Media Contact

Issued by JT Communication Solutions on behalf of Funda Wande

Email: media@jtcomms.co.za or Taynita@jtcomms.co.za

Tel: +27 71 873 0243/ (011) 788 7632 speak to Taynita Harilal

About Funda Wande

Funda Wande works to ensure that all children in South Africa can read for meaning and calculate with confidence by the age of ten, through high-quality teaching and learning resources for foundational literacy and numeracy. Its Mandela Day reading corner initiative extends this mission by nurturing a culture of reading for pleasure alongside its core literacy work.