STAFF of Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) heeded the global call to mark Nelson Mandela International Day and the centenary of his birth by being of service to others.
This year TNPA once again encouraged employees who volunteer for causes in their personal time, to nominate organisations they wished to support through the company’s Mandela Day activities. TNPA’s activities impacted 17 charitable causes around the country ranging from youth centres, schools, children’s and old age homes, palliative care organisations, informal settlements and more.
In Port Elizabeth the team of volunteers observed the day at three facilities close to employees’ hearts. They visited the Licebo School in Ikamvelihle, a learning centre for children with special needs; Khanyisa Isibane Edu-care Centre in Missionvale, a centre for children whose parents cannot afford pre-school; and Yokhuselo Haven, a centre that provides care and support for abused women and children.
The teams provided donations such as tables, chairs, teaching aids, 49sqm containers to be used as classrooms, groceries, toiletries, sanitary pads, blankets and they also cooked and cleaned the premises.
Port of East London volunteers stepped in at various local institutions. At Daily Bread Mission Mount Coke in King Williams Town, which caters for 60 children, TNPA donated 20 mattresses and cleaned up the mission grounds. At Pefferville Primary School in Duncan Village, 100 pairs of school shoes were donated and ablution facilities were cleaned to better serve the school’s 1385 learners. East London port employees also visited Mpundu Old Age Centre in Alice, where they donated mattresses, blankets and a food hamper.
At Good Samaritan Child and Youth Care Centre in Mdantsane, the Port of East London donated school shoes, food hampers and sports equipment, while at Funukwazi Training Centre in Mdantsane the TNPA East London team built a wheelchair ramp and repaired and painted ablution facilities, doors and classroom floors.
Port of East London employees also helped out alongside representatives of Transnet Group at Qunu Junior Primary School in Mthatha’s OR Tambo Inland District, which was turned into a modern school with state-of-the-art computer and biology laboratories after Mandela’s visit there in 1996.
The school, on the other side of a hill from Qunu, also happens to be the first primary school Mandela himself attended at the age of seven. During his schooldays, it consisted of a single room. The Transnet volunteers painted doors, ablution facilities and classrooms, and helped to clear and recycle as well as repair fencing.
Volunteers from the Port of Ngqura supported their chosen initiative on 20 July.