Minnie shifts focus from clear skin to clean hands

During the lockdown period, a number of companies have had to pivot from their primary operations and venture into the production of necessary goods and the provision of essential services in order to ensure a successful lockdown period.

One such company is the recently established MD Skincare which put a brief pause on the production of cosmetics in order to produce as much hand sanitiser as they could manage.

MD Skincare is the brainchild of media personality Minnie Dlamini and it is a project that has reportedly been years in the making. The company officially launched in June 2019 with a range of lotions, body washes and soaps.

However, at the behest of its founder, MD Skincare went into the production of hand sanitiser to meet the demand that came about as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

“As soon as this happened my social media started flooding…” said Dlamini, before recalling the rush to stock up on sanitiser that ensued shortly before the lockdown came into effect.

“I went and I spoke to my team and I said, ‘You know, it might not be in our plans but this might be an opportunity for us to do something that the country actually needs.’ Diageo came on board and sponsored some of the alcohol that we’d need to use…”

Thanks to the donation from the leading spirits manufacturer, overhead costs were significantly lower than they otherwise would have been, which enabled MD Skincare to produce the sanitiser at a fraction of the cost.

“We are proud to have partnered with the Minnie Dlamini Foundation, the Red Cross and Jaguar Land Rover to assist vulnerable communities during this trying time. We have donated 10,000 litres of alcohol towards the production of sanitisers,” said corporate relations director of Diageo South Africa Sibani Mngadi.

The MD Skincare sanitiser is being handed out for free in Nutriwell food packs that are being distributed to communities in need as part of an initiative by the Minnie Dlamini Foundation and Jaguar Land Rover South Africa – a brand for which Dlamini serves as a brand ambassador.

“My relationship with Jaguar is actually a really special one. When I started working with them as a brand ambassador, one of my major things was ‘we’ve got to do more than just a simple transactional brand ambassador contract. We’ve got to start actively doing things in the community to improve things.’”

Prior to the lockdown, both parties had already been working on the brand’s pre-existing food pack distribution programme. As such, they knew that food shortages would pose a big problem in various areas around the country during the lockdown.

“I was so grateful when I signed that that’s something that both parties are committed to. It’s one thing to be a car that you love but it’s another thing to use that platform for change,” said Dlamini.

“So what we did is we created the Feeding SA Together boxes. One box feeds one person for a month. And we decided to try something we have never tried before which is a crowdfunding page.”

Dlamini and her fellow Jaguar-Land Rover ambassadors, such as Bryan Habanah, Carol Bouwer and TT Mbha, have put out a call to action on their various social media profiles and have thus far raised R150,000 for their cause. This is estimated to feed a total of 500 people.

Additionally, Jaguar Land Rover has donated vehicles that will be used to distribute food parcels through their long-standing partnership the South African Red Cross who will handle the logistics of ensuring the delivery of help.

The food packs, which are valued at R250, contain a packet of vegetable soup, some soya mince, instant porridge and nutritious instant shakes and can feed one person for a month.

Anyone interested in donating to the cause can find the links to the Feeding SA Together Backabuddy page on Dlamini’s social media pages.

 

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A post shared by Minnie (@minniedlamini) on Apr 9, 2020 at 7:50am PDT

Alternatively, they can tune in to Black Coffee’s next We Are One, Home Brewed fundraising live Instagram stream to contribute to the cause.

 

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A post shared by Black Coffee (@realblackcoffee) on Apr 22, 2020 at 9:10am PDT

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