Twala throws his last ‘grenade’ for Alex

Leading philanthropist Linda Twala said the community of Alexandra must pick its self up and learn to appreciate and preserve the community work being done to upgrade the township.

Twala has been doing various community work and projects in the township for more than half a century. He spoke to Alex News about issues of development or the lack of it in Alex and the possible cause of the loss of the yester-year vibes of the township.

“Alexandrians need to do a self-introspection in order to find out the cause of the township’s misery and the loss of the vibrancy of the years gone by where cleanliness and people seen sweeping their yards and their front street pavement was the order of the day.

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“They must just ask themselves what happened to that order, pride and cleanliness that used to dictate their lives and ways of doing things.

“Today, instead of throwing bath water into their toilets, they would rather pour it into the street. “Instead of packing their waste and rubbish into plastic bags and dustbins provided to them for free by the municipality, they just dump rotting leftover food and veggies into the street. Sokwakhala nyonini bo? [what has happened to our society?],” Twala wondered.

The 77-year-old philanthropist will soon be involved in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the pride of Alexandra when he and other community workers get their hands dirty in the We Love Alex Community Makeover Project that will be facilitated by NPO South Africa Day through its Alex Chapter.

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Hinting at a possible retirement from active community service, Twala, who two weeks back built two inside toilets for two grannies, one being 90-year-old Grace Vilakazi, said he might hang up his work gloves soon after the makeover project.

“This [makeover project] might be the last grenade that I am going to throw in Alexandra. People in this township don’t love themselves anymore. They will destroy, and trash and tarnish anything meant for their own good,” said Twala, well-known for his Phuthaditjaba Centre.

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The centre was built at his home and was once destroyed in a bomb explosion attributed to the apartheid government because it was believed to be the seat of anti-apartheid political activity in the township.

It houses a number of community projects of the Afrika Tikkun NPO such as feeding the elderly every day, crèche facilities, a gym and a soon to be built state-of-the-art swimming pool.

“If we can’t succeed [with the makeover project] it will never happen again. I will have to retire.”

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