[Amanzimtoti, Monday, 18 July 2022]

The spirit of International Mandela Day has been embraced and is well alive amongst KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) leaders in Business.

This year, the Amanzimtoti Child and Family Welfare Society, located in the South of Durban, received support from the Transnet National Ports Authority’s (TNPA) Eastern Region and leaders of organizations operating within the KZN Province. This day was honored in keeping with the 2022 theme of the Mandela Day Foundation, “Do what you can, with what you have, wherever you are”

Leaders from KZN came together at the Child and Family Welfare Society to express their commitment and support till July 2022. Bidvest Freight, Grindrod SAPREF, Dube TradePort, Build It, eThekwini Maritime Cluster, South African Association of Ship Operators and Agents (SAASOA), and Trade & Investment KwaZulu Natal are among the companies that are a part of this influential alliance (TIKZN).

Pledges include the planting of a Fruit and Vegetable Garden by SAPREF which was coupled with gardening tools to ensure future maintenance. Dube TradePort partnered in the same project and has pledged to ensure the sustainability of the garden and the deployment of Agricultural experts to explore options for securing the crops that will be planted as well as the future sustainability of the garden. “In our experience, we have found that the socio-economic benefits of community gardens can help to ease some of the pressures associated with running a centre of this nature. Dube TradePort Corporation sees a community garden as being easily adapted to a communal environment like the Amanzimtoti Child and Family Welfare Society.” Commented Nolufefe Ali, Dube TradePort Corporate Services Executive,

“Bidvest Freight is appreciative to have been invited and given the chance to participate in this initiative. Investing in projects that have a significant and beneficial impact on the local society and community is very important to us as a company,” said Mr. Wiseman Madinane, CEO of Bidvest Freight. Due to the rise in criminal activity in the area where the society is located, Bidvest offered to install a sophisticated automated security system at the facility to protect its assets and the donations it receives from the local community.

For the past 77 years, the Amanzimtoti Child and Family Welfare Society has offered casework, group work, research, and community work services to children, youth, and families in the Amanzimtoti and adjacent rural and informal settlements. The primary responsibility of Amanzimtoti Child and Family Welfare Society, a designated child protection organization, is to care for and protect orphans and vulnerable children. Children who have been orphaned, have parents who are unable to care for them, have been sexually or physically abused, neglected, abandoned, or have been exploited receive professional therapeutic social work intervention services from the institute.

Moses Tembe, co-chairman of the KZN Growth Coalition, donated to the society R20,000 after the formal procedures. “The job that every member of the staff at this hospital does inspire me. Mr. Tembe added, “With this tiny gesture, I would like to encourage you to keep going and continue serving our communities.”