WATCH: Mining company puts food on the table in Ulana and Delmore

Mining company, DRDGOLD Limited (Ergo), in conjunction with Umsizi and Impophomo Organisation as well as Ray of Hope Foundations, donated about 250 food parcels to Ulana and Delmore informal settlements residents on May 27. About 150 beneficiaries from Ulana and 100 residents from Delmore benefited from the donation.

The food parcels, which consisted of essential food products as well as face masks, were distributed to deserving beneficiaries who have been affected by the lockdown. Officers from the Reiger Park police station escorted the entourage from Apostle Martin and Sandra Allies’s house’ to Ulana where people were already queuing outside the Ulana Day Care Centre around 10.30am.

Having their face masks on and observing the social distancing protocols, residents were overjoyed as the parcels were offloaded from the truck.

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Pastor Cynthia Nyarhi from Ray of Hope Foundations demonstrated how residents should wash their hands to protect themselves from the coronavirus. Their second stop was at Delmore informal settlements before they headed to Makausi informal settlement in Germiston.

Wayne Swanepoel, from DRDGOLD Limited, said the donation was part of their MSE (Merafong, Soweto, Ekurhuleni) initiative to bring relief to disadvantaged families.

“We started handing out food parcels in April and have identified areas that surround our mining operations in Ekurhuleni, Soweto and Merafong in Caltonville. “We believe that we can’t operate in an environment where people are suffering. It’s important that we look after the community and not be insensitive to their needs,” Swanepoel said.

Umsizi and Impophomo Organisation CEO John-Mark Kilian said: “What we are doing is close to our hearts because our company and NPO deals with socio- economic development and welfare for vulnerable communities, respectively.”

Apostle Allies, from Ray of Hope Foundations, under the Ray of Hope Church in Ramaphosa said through this initiative they are reaching out to people by feeding them spiritually and physically. One of the beneficiaries, Busisiwe Moloi from Delmore informal settlement, said she was happy that the food parcel will ensure that she and her children don’t starve for weeks.

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