Mayor donates school uniforms in north

Tshwane mayor Randall Williams, accompanied by MMC for community and social development Thabisile Vilakazi and a private company, donated hygiene essentials and school uniforms to underprivileged learners in two schools on Wednesday.

The learners are in Mlokotwa-Dube Primary School in Winterveldt and Phelang LSEN School in Hammanskraal.

Williams said as the municipality, their job is to provide basic services such as grass cutting, repairing potholes and streetlights; however, they felt that they also had a duty to assist the needy and underprivileged in their communities.

“Equally as a city we are mindful of the fact that it is a difficult time for South Africa. Our economy is not performing very well and as a result, many parents do not have jobs and are struggling to provide basic toiletries for their children, which will ultimately affect their learning.”

Williams said it was therefore important that they join hands and assist where they can.

“In this regard, I was particularly pleased with our donation drive today at these two schools.

“Tshwane remains committed to building sustainable partnerships with businesses and various stakeholders to assist and empower communities.”

MMC for community and social development, Thabisile Vilakazi, said the two schools are not the only ones that are going to be assisting as part of their donate to support a child programme.

“This was the first leg. As we go in the future, we are going to be identifying more schools and we are going to be trying to assist in terms of uniforms, hygiene pack and some of the basic needs that the schools require.”

She said the metro has noted that some schools in Tshwane are struggling with basics such as uniforms and transportation. Some of the schools also still do not have feeding schemes.

“We will engage the province to try and assist so that these schools are included in the feeding schemes,” Vilakazi said.

“At one of the schools we visited, we found that they have challenges in terms of teaching spaces to accommodate special needs learners. They find themselves taking on more special needs learners beyond their capabilities because there are not enough schools like that in the community.”

Vilakazi said despite schools and education not falling under local government mandate, the mayor has committed to assist the most venerable communities under his 10-point plan.

“We are, therefore, extending a hand within the marginalised and the excluded schools that are faced with poverty and socio-economic challenges.

“We need the private sector’s assistance. We hope that this partnership is something other private companies would want to associate with, because if we partner together, we can certainly achieve more.”

Municipality partner MaxProf managed to donate full school uniforms such as shirts, skirts, pants and shoes to 114 learners.

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