AVBOB hands Ingwavuma high school its 77th container library

Thongwana High School in Ingwavuma, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, now has a library. The container library, stocked with more than 3 000 books and learning resources and powered by solar panels, was handed over on Monday 7 September 2026 by AVBOB in partnership with the Department of Basic Education, to mark National Book Week and Literacy Month.

It is the 77th container library the funeral assurance group has delivered since the project began in 2013, and the first to go to a high school. Mengu Primary School in Kwalulwane, also in KwaZulu-Natal, received two trolley libraries, the first school in the programme to get a pair. Those contain learning materials and educational toys for the early childhood development centre through to Grade 7.

“The container library is stocked with over 3 000 books and learning resources,” AVBOB Group CEO Eugene Strauss said. “It is the 77th AVBOB Container Library donated and the first to be awarded to a high school since the inception of the project in 2013.”

The handover was attended by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, KwaZulu-Natal education department head Nkosinathi Ngcobo, Thongwana High principal Dr Muzwenhlanhla Mkhwanazi, and representatives of AVBOB and OUPSA, the stationery supplier that partnered on the day.

What the programme has put into schools

The numbers behind the initiative are substantial. More than R39 million has gone into building and delivering the 77 container libraries, which now reach all nine provinces. Each is fitted with solar panels so that it works as a learning space when the grid does not.

Roughly 2 978 bilingual dictionaries have been handed to learners, and about R11 million has been spent refurbishing and restocking 27 container libraries that are more than seven years old, a detail that matters because a library that is not maintained stops being a library within a few years.

In total, more than 228 000 books have been donated, reaching over 74 000 learners and 2 000 educators. Trolley libraries, each carrying 500 CAPS-aligned literacy books, have gone to 3 986 schools at an investment of more than R227 million. With the 2026 donations included, the programme says it has put more than a million books into circulation this year alone.

Thongwana High received roughly 900 dictionaries on top of the 3 000 books in its container.

Why a library in Ingwavuma is the story

Ingwavuma sits in the far north-east of KwaZulu-Natal, close to the Mozambique and Eswatini borders, in one of the province’s least-resourced districts. The gap between a school with a stocked, lit, lockable room of books and one without is not an abstract one. It is the difference between a learner who can read for meaning by the time they write matric and one who cannot, and reading for meaning is the skill every other subject rests on.

The programme’s own design reflects that. The books are CAPS-aligned, meaning they follow the national curriculum rather than sitting on a shelf as decoration. The dictionaries are bilingual. The solar panels mean load shedding does not close the room.

The partnership model is also worth noting plainly. A private company put up the capital and the logistics. The Department of Basic Education and the provincial department opened the doors and identified the schools. Neither could have done the Ingwavuma handover alone, and both showed up for it.

What happens next

The 77th library is now in the hands of Thongwana High School and its principal, who has to keep it stocked, staffed and open. The programme’s record shows it does return to older libraries to refurbish them, with 27 already replenished. Whether Thongwana’s container is on that list in seven years is the test of whether this is a donation or an investment.

Source: eNCA, Turning pages, changing futures: Corporate-government partnership celebrates National Book Week with three library donations