Roads Agency Limpopo School Library 101 Cause on Mandela Day’s 10th Anniversary
Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) spent a day at a school in Ga-Maja, a village within the Capricorn District Municipality of Limpopo Province, for the 2019 Nelson Mandela International Day activities on the day’s tenth anniversary.
The programme resides in the Office of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at RAL and this is the Agency’s third straight year participating in the day simply called Mandela Day. The annual day itself was declared by a unanimous resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 2009, and was first marked as an international day from 2010.
School-based activities, namely education and literacy, were the most popular humanitarian causes across the country on Mandela Day as the eponymous Mandela himself was passionate about education with his most quotable quote on the issue being that “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
Other Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) indentified activities included food and nutrition, shelter, sanitation and active citizenship. These five focus areas are part of the foundation’s strategy launched in May 2019 for the next 10 years, titled “Mandela Day: The Next Chapter”, to mobilise “people, governments, civil society and the corporate world” to intensify their focus on these areas.
According to the NMF, the new strategy charts a new path for the ten-year-old initiative significantly changing the manner in which it will impact on people’s lives.
“Over the past decade, Mandela Day has enjoyed global support and solidarity as an opportunity to practice commitment to uplifting the dignity of others and as a day to commemorate the lifetime of service Nelson Mandela gave to South Africa and the world,” said the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“Mandela Day has moved away from an ad hoc, individualised, reactive approach and moved towards a sustainable, long-term, collaborative methodology to address issues affecting our society. The next ten years of Mandela Day will see the establishment of a global network of changemakers to ensure deeper and sustainable impact in response to global challenges of poverty.”
While many stuck to the original pledge of 67 minutes of community service to “take action” and “inspire change” outside their normal everyday ‘good deeds’, RAL spent the whole day at Mahwibitswane Senior Secondary School in Mogodumo Circuit, on what would have been the late Nelson Mandela’s 101st birthday.
The NMF itself is not rigid on the 67 minutes as it ultimately wants everyone to “make every day a Mandela Day”. 67 minutes is actually 67 years Mr Mandela dedicated for ‘social justice’.
One of the main activities on the day, for RAL senior leadership including Chief Executive Officer, Gabriel Maluleke, was to help clean, and arrange the school library, which looked more like a twoclassroom storage space than anything.
To go with the take “action against poverty” theme and the other focus areas, RAL also donated school uniforms, shoes and female sanitary hygiene products to pre-identified needy pupils at the school for good measure.
A 2018 Stellenbosch University Law Clinic research noted that as many as 30% of school learners, particularly in rural schools, miss vital schooldays when menstruating. Despite these items being recently added to list of zerorated item, i.e. free of Value Added Tax (VAT) by National Treasury, many poor girl children are still unable to afford menstrual cups, tampons and sanitary towels.
As Mamphela Ramphele, a trustee of the NMF notes, “poverty is not an absence of money but a lack of love”.
Mogale Malahlela, principal at Mahwibitswane, said they were extremely delighted that RAL identified their school out of the many needy schools in the province deserving of their Mandela Day attention.
“The cleaning up and rearranging of the school library will go a long way in benefiting learners at the school,” said the grateful Mr Malahlela.
“We really appreciate the gesture you have shown and wish you could also do it for others.”
Mandela Day, a Nelson Mandela Foundation initiative, is a global movement for good to advance Mr Mandela’s legacy and vision, and his spirit of servant leadership. The day, marked on the birthday (18 July) of first democratic president of South Africa, is now active in 200 countries.
“Nelson Mandela did not want Mandela Day to become a public holiday but an opportunity to address deep-rooted issues,” concludes the foundation’s Chief Executive Officer, Sello Hatang.
“EDUCATION IS THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON WHICH YOU CAN USE TO CHANGE THE WORLD.”
RAL donated school uniforms, shoes and female sanitary hygiene products to pre-identified needy pupils at the school for good measure.
“The cleaning up and rearranging of the school library will go a long way in benefiting learners at the school,” said the grateful Mr Malahlela.
Mandela Day has moved away from an ad hoc, individualised, reactive approach and moved towards a sustainable, long-term, collaborative methodology to address issues affecting our society.