Mining, renewable energy and large agricultural companies all carry obligations to invest in the communities around their operations. This tool maps those companies against every school in South Africa, and shows where the need is greatest.
Each tab answers a different question. Click any card to jump straight there.
Where are the schools and the companies? Every school and operation plotted together. Filter by province, quintile, school type or matric result. Click any point for its full detail.
What sits near each operation? Every mining, renewable energy and agricultural operation mapped, with the schools inside its 50km community radius.
What has each mining company already promised? Social and Labour Plans are public documents setting out binding education commitments. Links to the source document for each company.
Which schools are struggling? Pass rates for every school that reported, over three years, with the direction of travel.
Where does this come from and how far can we trust it? Sources, how the catchments are calculated, and an honest list of what is still incomplete.
Companies and their CSI teams — see which schools sit inside your community radius, which are struggling, and where support would land. Schools, districts and departments — see which operations are near you and what they have already committed to.
Depending on where you are starting from.
Open Operations and search your own name. You will see every school within 50km of your site, how many learners they serve, and how they performed at matric. Then open the Map and search that district to see them plotted.
Open the Map, find your area, and turn on the operations layer. Any diamond within reach is a company with a community investment obligation nearby. Open Company Commitments to read what they have already undertaken to do.
These appear throughout the tool. Anywhere you see a dotted underline, hover it for the same explanation in place.
| Sector | Schools (reported) | Schools (unique) | Learners (reported) | Learners (unique) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining | 14,020 | 6,784 | 10,233,212 | 4,820,645 |
| Agriculture | 5,592 | 4,037 | 3,400,575 | 2,498,707 |
| Renewable Energy | 1,175 | 756 | 643,702 | 415,879 |
Look up any operation to see the schools within 50km of it — how many, how many learners, how many sit in the poorest quintiles, and how they performed at matric. Search by company, province or district.
Every public school in South Africa is placed in a wealth band from Quintile 1 (poorest) to Quintile 5 (wealthiest). The band is set by the income, unemployment and literacy levels of the surrounding community, not by the school itself. Schools in Quintiles 1 and 2 serve the poorest communities, receive the largest state subsidy per learner, and are no-fee by national policy.
Q1+Q2 % is the share of schools within 50km of an operation that fall into those two bands. If an operation shows 80%, then four out of every five schools near it serve poor communities. It is a measure of the surrounding community's need — not of school quality, and not of how those schools perform. For performance, read the Matric 25 column alongside it.
Social and Labour Plans are public documents. They set out, by law, what each mining company has committed to spend on education, in which communities, and over what period. They are the single most useful starting point for any approach.
School-level National Senior Certificate pass rates over three years.
| Dataset | Producer | Used for | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| EMIS Schools Masterlist 2025 | DBE | School locations, quintile, fee status, enrolment | Amber — coordinate defects found and repaired |
| NSC School Performance Report 2025 | DBE | Matric pass rates 2023–25 | Green |
| Social & Labour Plans | Mining companies / DMRE | Education commitments | Amber — coverage varies by company |
| Mining operation locations | Proteus compilation | Operation locations | Green — verified |
| Renewable energy sites | Proteus compilation from IPP Office | Operation locations | Amber — town-centroid geocoding, unverified |
| Agricultural operations | Proteus compilation | Operation locations | Amber — town-centroid geocoding, unverified |
| National Schools Subjects Report | DBE | STEM pass rates | Not yet obtained |
50km, applied uniformly. For renewable energy this is not an analytical choice — the REIPPPP requires IPPs to assess the needs of communities within a 50km radius of the plant, so the catchment matches the regulatory definition of the host community.