Mandela day celebrated at KwaGuqa Disability Centre in Lynnville
South Africa Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) in partnership with other stakeholders joined hands to celebrate Mandela Day at a disability centre in Lynnville.
With all the stakeholders in one mission of taking action to inspire a change, and making every day Mandela Day they cleaned, painted and donated items to the centre. The event was held on Friday, July 18.
In her welcome address executive mayor of Emalahleni, Cllr Salome Sithole, said she appreciated SADTU for organising the event. She said after they knocked at her door, they joined hands in making the event a success and she thanked them and other stakeholders for their contributions and donations.
Mr Thami Nompula, Sihold chief executive officer, spoke about love, light and faith.
Lebo Mokoena a pupil of Kopanang Secondary School rendered a song during the event.
Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Andries Nel, said it was a great honour to address people on the birthday of one of the greatest statesmen, the late Nelson Mandela who brought democracy in the country. He mentioned that we need to celebrate his life.
“The National Development Plan is very close to the local government. We need to bring all the different spheres of government together with labour, business, youth religious groups, NGO and other stakeholders to join hands and give back to our communities. Together this day means that we need to work at ward level and make Mandela Day every day. Working together we need to reach out to our people so that they can face their challenges. We need to ensure that we deliver service to our people. We need to protect our schools because they are important for the education of our children, lets make education everybody business,” said Nel.
Mr Mugwena Maluleka, a SADTU official, said he learnt many languages because when one speak in a person’s language you speak to one’s heart. “We are at work today and every day which inspired us to join hands with other stakeholders to honour Mandela. We must not fail his dream that every child must receive quality education. We came here to show our dedication. We also came to clean and paint this place, as we believe that cleanliness is next to godliness. Our core business is to teach and to ensure that children go to school and by so doing we will be building a nation.”
The centre was cleaned and painted and also received donations of cleaning items, a stove, blankets and many more from the different stakeholders.
