Construction on Mandela Children’s Hospital begins
The Nelson Mandela Children Hospital Trust celebrated the start of the hospital's construction with a sod-turning ceremony in Parktown on 20 March.
The CEO of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Sibongile Mkhabela, said of the R1 billion needed for the project which is set to open in March 2016, only R570 million had been raised so far.
In attendance was Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi who expressed his hope for the Children’s Hospital to be state-run in order to ensure that every child could access treatment offered by the institution.
The building of the hospital, which will be situated close to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital, is set to be the biggest in Africa.
On 19 March, Pick n Pay also announced that it would hand over a cheque of R4.5 million towards the building of a specialist unit within the hospital.
The announcement came after the company decided to donate all profits made on the day of Mandela’s funeral last year, to charities which honoured Madiba’s legacy.
Pick n Pay’s CEO Richard Brasher said, “By opening our stores on 15 December, we gave our staff and customers an opportunity to contribute in a very tangible way to Mr Mandela’s legacy.
“We pledged that all profits from sales that day would go to worthy causes.”
Mkhabela responded, “We are grateful to Pick n Pay for this very generous donation.”
“Pick n Pay wanted to ensure that the proceeds of their “Working for Madiba” initiative went to a cause which as stated by Mrs Machel, was Mr Mandela’s last wish – ‘you are enabling this wish and honouring his legacy.’
“We are proud that they chose our project and are confident that their donation will benefit many children in need for years to come,” she added.
Mkhabela said fundraising would continue until the R1 billion target was reached – the money will not only go towards building the facility but as well as training medical professionals set to work at the facility.
