A councillor with a giving heart
MALVERN – PR councillor, Shaun Dlanjwa adopts a child-headed household.
Economic Freedom Fighter’s PR councillor, Shaun Dlanjwa has a heart of gold.
“I’m a member of the community before I’m a councillor. I need to serve the people because they come first on our agenda,” he said.
Born in the Eastern Cape and currently living in Malvern, Dlanjwa said he has seen so much suffering in the area and wants to do something about it. “I realised that something needed to be done to help people in this poverty-stricken area. That is why I chose to help the Motsepe family of six orphans. These children lost both their parents two years ago.”
Dlanjwa said the eldest, who is taking care of her siblings, is turning 20 this year and has two children of her own. He met the family in 2014 while conducting a door-to-door programme during the national elections.
He said that since then, he has been trying to help them. When he was elected as PR councillor, he committed himself to donating R1 500 every month to the family until the end of his term.”I have committed myself to helping the family financially. I will be providing the basic needs like school uniforms for those who are going to school next year. I will also look at other needs the family has and I will try to help them.”
Dlanjwa said the situation in the household is bad and needs the community’s intervention. “There is no furniture and some of the children sleep on the cement floor. The room they are renting has cracks and the roof is leaking. The size of those cracks are big enough to see a person from outside.”
He added that there are many families in the community who need help, but he chose the Motsepes because it’s a child-headed family. “The children are malnourished and not in good health. Two teens no longer attend school due to financial challenges. They were abandoned by extended family members and are in serious need of assistance.”
He said it takes a village to raise a child and these children are in need of their community’s support. “I would like to challenge business people in the area to adopt a family or two in the community who are in dire need of support. A food parcel a month goes a long way.
“I would also like to challenge councillors to adopt families in serious need of help. If we work together to change one life we could end poverty in our communities,” concluded Dlanjwa.
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