NUM and JB Marks Education Trust Fund give out bursaries to 370 students for the 2023 academic year

Media Statement, 24 January 2023

NUM and JB Marks Education Trust Fund give out bursaries to 370 students for the 2023 academic year

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) through its entity, the JB Marks Education Trust Fund, has once again issued out bursaries to its own members and their families in an effort to educate and empower them.

This is despite the current economic hardship the country is facing. Educating and empowering young Southern Africans is the centrepiece of the NUM strategy meant to break the yoke of the triple evils of pov-erty, unemployment, and inequality.

About 370 prospective higher education students (350 being on undergraduates and 20 postgraduates pro-grammes) are currently indulged in a week-long intensive induction workshop at the NUM’s Elijah Barayi Memorial Training College in Midrand. The 350 are new young students to pursue studies at various univer-sities, colleges and TVETs whereas the 20 are adult members of the union to engage in postgraduate stud-ies that included Honours, Masters and Doctorates.

The JB Marks Education Trust Fund was founded in 1997 by the NUM and named after its first president of the African Miners Union, Comrade JB Marks. The Trust celebrated its 25th-anniversary last year.

Over the past two decades, the JB Marks Education Trust Fund has provided bursaries for the NUM mem-bers and their families; ultimately enabling 1, 717 bursars to graduate with mainstream qualifications that included several medical doctors, engineers, artisans and pilots.

“The NUM believes in education as a means to empower and liberate a black child. What makes this trust fund particularly important to the general uplifment of communities is its interest in the dependents of our members of whom many have received educational support. Our members and elected Shopstewards con-tinue to be trained for various skills at our college”, said NUM National Education Secretary Lefty Mashego.

So far the Trust Fund has paid over R600m for over 3 010 beneficiaries.

“We salute the NUM for its visionary leadership to establish such a Trust to benefit poor workers. Indeed, the NUM is a revolutionary giant trade union that is changing many lives of workers and their dependents," said Jako Mokgosi, the JB Marks Education Trust Fund Principal Officer.

The NUM has deliberately and consciously placed itself at the forefront of championing the national effort of educating and empowering the dependents of its membership in mining, construction, energy and metal sectors, Education of an individual is by definition education of a society.

For more detailed information, please contact:

Lefty Mashego, NUM National Education Secretary, 066 282 5210

Jako Mokgosi, JB Marks Education Trust Fund Principal Officer, 082 380 8630

Livhuwani Mammburu, NUM National Spokesperson, 083 809 3257

Luphert Chilwane, NUM Media Officer, 083 809 3255

The National Union of Mineworkers
7 Rissik Street.
Cnr Frederick Johannesburg
Tel: 011 377 2111 Cell: 083 809 3257
Twitter: @Num_Media

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NUM/100860023402167