On the last day of the winter holidays boys from the Saint Andrew’s Combined School got their hands dirty as part of the school’s Mandela Day Project.
Learners helped Saints’ principal Roland Rudd to remove a large part of grass from the Cabbage Patch Rugby Field at the school where the brand new astro hockey field will soon be built.
The grass that is removed this morning, will be donated to the Relebeletse Primary School in Phase 4.
Rudd said the MEC for Education, Makalo Mohale and the district director of Motheo, December Moloi, identified Relebeletse as part of their Beautification Project for underpriveleged Schools.
Saints, one of Bloemfontein’s oldest schools, have launched their plans to build a state-of-the-art waterless astro.
Rudd said this will be the first field of it’s kind in Africa.
A decision was taken by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) that in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, hockey will not be played on a turf that requires water anymore.
Guided by this decision, the school have opted for this new Paris GT surface.
St Andrew’s will be the first school in South Africa to have a turf of this nature – setting the benchmark for all other schools and future astro turfs to come.
“This is a project that we have been planning for a long time,” Rudd said. “Now we will be able to build an astro with the newest spesifications. We hope that it will provide opportunities not only for school teams, but for senior teams as well.”
The Trompie Group were appointed as Construction Company. This huge project coincides with the celebration of the school’s 160th birthday year and in the celebration of Mandela month.