On a mission to make a difference

A hero in his own right, Japie Dantuma recently embarked on a journey to provide relief to the drought-stricken community of Senekal.

Overcome with a feeling of responsibility to his fellow man, he decided to collect water and cash donations from those willing to spare a litre or two.

Dubbed ‘Japie se Waterkarprojek’ by his wife, Marie, the Senekal mission spread through social media like wildfire.

“I enlisted Facebook’s networking capabilities and the responses started coming forward, with promised donations of water. Colleagues, friends and family, living outside Newcastle wanted to help with cash, and I then purchased the water on their behalf,” he explained.

Mr Dantuma approached local businessman, Hannes Willemse, and requested a special price on the bottled water sold at Kings Liquor Wholesalers.

“An update went out on my Facebook page about the reduced prices. I parked my trailer inside their outlet and donations were placed therein. Eventually, the cargo/water became so heavy that Hannes’s staff had to add more air to the tyres.”

Jumping on the proverbial bandwagon, the pupils of Drakensberg and Arbor Park primary schools also collected water for the cause. After careful calculation, he disclosed the pupils alone had donated a whopping 1 415,5 litres.

With the logistics of transporting the water to Senekal becoming a cause for concern, the Willemse Group was gracious enough to sponsor Mr Dantuma a sprinter for the day, as well as a full tank of fuel.

Mr Dantuma’s team departed on January 16 at 5am, carrying more than 2 000 litres of water and an underlying sense of achievement.

“Going past Paul Roux, the severity of the drought on the farms hit me like brick in my face. I cannot describe it to you. Seeing is believing and it was not pleasant,” he added.

When they arrived, they were greeted with admiration, and gratitude by a community on the verge of devastation.

“We eventually left Senekal, and arrived safely back home at around 4.45pm.”

Mr Dantuma thanked all those who played their part by contributing to the success of the project.

“Finally, all thanks and praise to God, for giving us guidance in our endeavours to make a small difference to the people we met along our journey, and ensuring that we arrived home safely on completion of this mission,” he concluded.