Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
How the celebrities will be spending their time on Mandela Day
WHAT the celebs are doing to mark Mandela Day on Thursday: ROB VAN VUUREN, comedian: I’ll be busy drumming up support for the charities I work with, including Friends of Chintsa and Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust. I’ll also be spending time with interns from the Magnet Theatre who have a special interest in stand-up comedy. FANA MOKOENA, actor, most recently in World War Z: I usually go to Thembisa to help kids there with their acting skills. I like to teach them about the importance of preparation before you do a scene. It’s a small thing and it literally takes about 67 minutes. But it’s a lesson they will carry into their professional lives. ROBERT WHITEHEAD, actor, Isidingo: will be working on set on Thursday, but will definitely be making a donation to the Turning Point Home for boys, on behalf of my parish, St George’s in Parktown.
IDEON LOTZ, actor: I’ll be on a film set on Mandela Day, but I contribute regularly to the Kidzpositive charity organisation and to the paediatric department at Groote Schuur Hospital. I got involved with them during recent filming, and feel passionately about these causes. I will certainly be
giving time to them. TARINA PATEL, model and Bollywood actress: Graça Machel told me recently that Madiba’s last wish is to see the completion of the Nelson Mandela Hospital. Many of our babies and young children don’t have good health care so there is a high premium on completion of the hospital. I will spend Mandela Day at clinics teaching mothers the importance of health care charts, how to use them to monitor their child’s health, and to understand when they need to bring their
children to hospital. LARA LIPSCHITZ, actress and former YO-TV presenter, now appearing in Jersey Boys: I will be spending time at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital on Mandela Day. I will read to, play with and spend time with some of the children, and I hope that some of my fellow cast members will join me. LEBO MASHILE, poet: I do a lot of work with young children with the Say No to Child Pornography cyber-safety campaign, and I’ll continue this work in honour of Mandela Day. Our kids in South Africa are really battling, and we’re not equipping them with the tools they need to face the world. My heart breaks when I think about that. JO-ANNE RICHARDS, author, most recently of The Imagined Child: I will be sending out desperate appeals for funding for the South African Inherited Disorders Association, to ensure that not all hope is lost of continuing an essential programme of primary prevention and care. The association has created a solution to radically reduce birth defects – South Africa’s second-highest cause of child death and disability.