The area faces the double challenge of high unemployment and a large number of child-headed households, underscoring the urgent need for a well-resourced library.
Mandlamasha Community School has 902 learners from Grade R up to Grade 9, with more than half of the learners on social grants - all of whom benefit from the commitment of the principal as well as 27 educators.
At a ceremony attended by the school principal and educators, learners, community representatives, Breadline Africa director Tim Smith and Wayne Bebb, Brand ID's CEO, the library was celebrated as a way of encouraging reading and improving literacy in a deeply under-resourced community.
"It is deeply humbling once again to see how committed educators are making a difference in the lives of children who need it most," said Bebb. "We are thrilled that 466/64 Fashion has been able to play a part in this by funding a library for all the learners at this inspiring school."
As with the Parkdene Primary Library, which opened on 6 September, Breadline Africa and The Bookery have worked together to ensure the Mandlamasha Mandela Day Library includes a broad section of fiction, non-fiction and reference books, across all ages of the school's learners. Also helping with the library is Pick n Pay, which contributed books donated by customers in Joburg and Ladysmith as part of the retailer's 2012 Mandela Day book drive. Legalwise additionally paid for the invaluable training of a librarian for the Mandlamasha Mandela Day Library.
As part of the Mandela Day Library Project 2012, the opening of the library is an active way of furthering Nelson Mandela's humanitarian legacy, which includes an unwavering belief in the power of knowledge, ideas and imagination through reading.
Indeed, as the Nelson Mandela digital archive at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory reveals, Madiba read widely at school and then made full use of the library in his section of the Robben Island prison.
Among the books he read while incarcerated for 27 years were John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls and the novels of Nadine Gordimer. Since his release from prison, Mandela has spoken frequently of his love of books and reading.
The opening of the second library funded by 466/64 Fashion comes as the global fashion brand enters its second year at retail in South Africa and is fast moving into many different territories around the world. Retail sales of the brand generate funds for 46664 South Africa and a third library is due to be opened in the Eastern Cape in the next few months, again funded by 466/64 Fashion.
