From cleaning river and teaching coding to fighting crime, Cape Town residents and non-profit organisations will join the rest of the country to spread with spirit of ubuntu to commemorate Mandela Day.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation said this year’s theme is “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”, was meant to highlight the plight of food security and climate change.
Light from Africa Foundation based in Kenilworth, which empowers youth in marginalised areas, through arts and crafts, will be cleaning a river tomorrow.
Over the June school holidays, the foundation has been running a three-week youth arts and crafts programme in Suurbraak, in the Overberg area. This has averaged an attendance of 65 children per day.
Their programme will culminate in a clean-up of Buffeljags River in Suurbraak.
Director of the foundation, Godfrey Hendrickse, said the redfin fish had become endangered because of the river was polluted.
“We work on educating the children about environmental awareness as part of the programme, teaching them to protect their natural resources,” he said.
He added: “The river runs right through the town and is a lifeline to many.”
Hendrickse said through cleaning the river, the foundation wants to heed the call to protect the environment.
“Through this, we hope to empower the community. We want to teach the young people that the river belongs to them, and they should be the ones to look after it,” he said.
For those wanting to make a financial contribution as part of their 67 minutes, Woodstock-based NGO Ikamva Labantu is hosting a fund-raiser named Gift of Hope.
Ikamva has programmes and service centres aimed at early childhood development, afternoon school care for children and for the elderly.
The Gift of Hope allows people to donate cash in honour of someone, towards their programmes and services centres. An e-card will then be delivered to the person, notifying them of a donation.
The organisation’s senior fund-raiser Moya Wolff said this was a meaningful way of contributing to the well-being of senior citizens and children in need.
“It takes a few minutes to share your joy with others. The first time I sent a Gift of Hope e-card, I gained as much delight from the experience as the recipient,” she said.
Getting a head start on the celebrations, a comedy show will be hosted this evening, by Johannesburg-based NGO, Cotlands.
Cotlands is focused on creating access to high-quality play-based early childhood development programmes for children living in poverty.
In collaboration with Hard Rock Cafe, the NGO is putting together a Laugh for 67 minutes comedy show in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
At R300 a ticket for the live event and R150 a ticket for virtual attendance, you can help a vulnerable child get access to an early learning opportunity.
Coding program CodeJIKA will offer free coding training to pupils, parents and teachers wishing to learn the basics of coding in one hour.
“This Mandela Day, we are aiming to introduce at least 10 000 African youth to the basics of coding in HTML, CSS and Javascript,” explained CodeJIKA project manager Sibusiso Khoza.
CodeJIKA’s efforts are aligned with Nelson Mandela’s belief that “Education is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world.”
Gugulethu Development Forum secretary, Vincent Domingo, said they would host a campaign with the Department of Water and Sanitation to clean the canals and rivers in the area.
“We will be cleaning the canals and rivers around Gugulethu and we also have an organisation that will teach young people about plumbing skills.
“We start at 9am and then at 1 pm we will have people who were trained as plumbers,” he said.
The Khayelitsha Development Forum will host a community crime imbizo in Makhaza.
Forum chairperson Ndithini Tyhido said the imbizo forms part of their continuous efforts against the mass shooting and killings in the area.
“Our purpose is to devise strategies for fighting the crime,” said Tyhido.
Dumisani Qwebe, a secretary of the Nyanga Community Police Forum, said they have partnered with the youth desk to clean the Nyanga police station.
Kisima Radio, an online community radio station in Khayelitsha, in partnership with Khayelitsha Heritage Council hosted on Friday a “release Mandela campaign” dialogue that was led by panellists.
The co-founder of the station, Nosipho Mahlanyana, said they decided to give a platform to the activists who fought for the liberation of the people and release of the Struggle activists from prisons.
“It’s about leaders of Khayelitsha who were active during apartheid and fighting for freedom and for the younger generation.
“In commemoration of Mandela day we thought about how we acknowledge our heroes who were fighting for the release of Struggle stalwarts like Nelson Mandela by putting pressure on the apartheid government,” said Mahlanyana.
The activists will be speaking about their experiences and struggles and the event will be captured and the video will be published on Monday on their website and social media platforms.
One of the panellists, Nhonho Mtakatya, 50, described the platform as important for the activists to “reflect on the background and activism to teach today’s generation”.