Winter Is Not Over: 72 School Jerseys Handed Over at Thuthuka Primary School

Seventy-two learners at Thuthuka Primary School in Tembisa went home warm on Thursday.

On Thursday 30 July 2026, the Fudumala Ubuntu Challenge arrived at Thuthuka Primary School in the Emfihlweni section of Tembisa and handed over 72 school jerseys. Every jersey came sealed, in the school's own maroon and gold, with a small white label on the front carrying one learner's name, their school and their grade. Not a box of stock. Seventy-two named children.

It was the second handover of the week. On Tuesday 28 July, 100 jerseys went to learners at Sindawonye Primary School in Mamelodi, backed by Investec together with private sponsors. Two schools, three days, 172 jerseys.

Winter on the Highveld does not end when July does

There is a habit, every year, of treating the end of July as the end of winter. The jersey drives wind down, the cold-weather appeals go quiet, and the assumption sets in that the worst is behind us. The numbers do not agree.

Conditions and forecast for Tembisa, Gauteng, recorded on 30 July 2026 (Open-Meteo and World Weather Online).

Tembisa fell to about 10°C overnight before the handover and climbed to roughly 20°C in the afternoon under a clear sky, with the humidity dropping as low as 18 percent. The night after the handover was forecast colder still, near 6°C, and the first two nights of August colder again, close to 5°C. Across the following fortnight the forecast carries no rain at all.

That is the shape of August on the Highveld. Cold mornings, dry air, and wind. Berg winds, the warm dry winds that blow down off the escarpment through the South African winter, pull what little moisture is left out of the air and push fire danger up across the interior. Children walk to school in it. The 6am walk in August is not gentler than the 6am walk in June, it is simply less talked about.

A school jersey is a uniform, not a substitute

Learners arrived at the handover in what they had. A navy fleece worn thin and pilled. An old grey puffer jacket carried over one arm. A faded pink top doing the work a jersey should be doing. None of those children were cold because nobody cared. They were cold because a school jersey costs money a household does not always have in the middle of a school year.

This is where warmth and dignity stop being two separate things. A jacket keeps a child warm. A school jersey, in the school's own colours, with the school crest and the words Aim High stitched on the chest, does something a jacket cannot. It puts the child in line with everyone else. There is no longer a visible difference between the learner whose parents could buy the uniform and the learner whose parents could not. Nobody has to explain anything at assembly. Nobody gets asked why they are dressed differently.

That is the whole point of the name on the label. It is not a donation handed to a crowd. It is one jersey, in one child's size, with one child's name on it. Fudumala comes from the Zulu word meaning to warm up, and the campaign has always meant both kinds of warmth: the warmth of the garment, and the warmth of being counted.

Thank you to the sponsors who funded these 72 jerseys

The Thuthuka Primary School handover was funded by private sponsors of the Fudumala Ubuntu Challenge. People who saw a counter on a website, decided that one child was worth the price of a jersey, and paid for it. Most of them will never meet the learner whose name went onto the label they made possible.

Threads for iKasi Foundation extends its sincere gratitude to every sponsor who funded a jersey for Thuthuka Primary School, and to the school's staff, who opened their hall and organised their learners so that the handover could be done properly rather than quietly.

201 of 1 000, and the cold has not finished

As at 30 July 2026, the Fudumala counter stood at 201 sponsorships towards the 2026 goal of 1 000. That is 799 learners still on the list, with August ahead of them.

The campaign does not close at the end of winter, because for the children still waiting, winter is exactly the point. If you have been meaning to sponsor a jersey, this is the part of the year when it matters most and when the fewest people are paying attention.