MEC to give the inside take of progress to date

Sport, recreation, arts and culture MEC Bulelwa Tunyiswa will be strapping on a pair of running shoes next Monday for the 10km Thuma Mina fun walk.

The walk starts at 5am, with the department expecting close to 100 of its stakeholders, including musicians and sportsmen and women, to take part. It forms part of an engagement programme.

The group will set off from the Orient Theatre and will get an opportunity to speak to the MEC before ending at the EL Golf Course.

Tunyiswa will then host a gathering at the Eastern Cape Audio Visual Centre where she is expected to address hundreds of participants.

Department spokesperson Andile Nduna said Tunyiswa would interact with stakeholders during the walk and encouraged the community of East London to join in.

“The purpose of the walk is to afford MEC Tunyiswa time with the stakeholders of the department, stakeholders from the sporting fraternity and arts and culture community as well.

“From walking with them, the MEC will then engage them, taking their inputs at the actual engagement session,” said Nduna.

“The stakeholders will be briefed on what the department has achieved in this current financial year. Plus they will also have an opportunity to give their inputs for the following financial year.

Nduna said the department would also highlight the gains and losses it had made in the past financial year.

“We see this walk as very much in line with the department’s mandate of encouraging a healthy lifestyle, but in the process interacting with our stakeholders.

“For instance from the arts and culture community – [musician] Duma Maswana will be there, Butho Vuthela will be there.

“And then 35 amateur boxers from Gompo and elderly women who play in the Golden Games will be representing the sporting fraternity.”

Walk in line with mandate to encourage healthy lifestyle