Food parcels for Gamalakhe campus students
About 100 food parcels were donated to students at the Esayidi TVET College, Gamalakhe Campus.
The chairperson of the South African Students Congress (SASCO) at the Esayidi TVET College, Gamalakhe Campus, said he hopes the Freedom Fighters Students Command will now eat humble pie after 100 food parcels were donated to students at the campus.
Sphelele Cele, SASCO chairperson at the Gamalakhe Campus said this after the Mzwandile Mkhwanazi Foundation recently handed over food parcels to students who had not received their National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) payments.
The donation was supposed to be handed over earlier in May but the Mzwandile Mkhwanazi Foundation pitched at the campus without the donations.
Cele said it was very confusing to hear people who did not even study at the Gamalakhe Campus saying that there was no donation to begin with.
“We are very happy that this day has come because we understood when the foundation spoke to us. We were really surprised that people who don’t even attend this campus know more about the donation than us. We trusted the founder of the foundation when he said he would come back. It was also other political parties such as the EFF who made those remarks. The programme was successful so we hope they will eat humble pie,” said Cele.
Meanwhile, Mzwandile Mkhwanazi, founder of the Mzwandile Mkhwanazi Foundation said they were approached by the leadership of SASCO at the Gamalakhe Campus.
Mkhwanazi said the leadership told them about the situation where a number of students are without food.
“Some of the students come from areas such as Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, Umkomaas, Vryheid, and a number of different areas in KZN. These students were faced with the issue of not having food while they waited for their NSFAS payments. They asked us to intervene so that the students can sleep on a full stomach. We agreed and assisted. We learned that the students share their accommodation in pairs so the food parcel will be given to each room that is being shared,” he said.
He added that they donated 100 food parcels.
Mkhwanazi added: “However, with SASCO we have formulated a relationship where we said we must not start with food and end with food. The foundation also wishes to identify certain job opportunities for these students because the problem is as a society we are so good in criticising the government. So as the foundation, we thought we should come up with a solution where we do something about the issue. We have friends and families who work in vessels in places such as France, Russia, Australia, and these vessels transport holidaymakers to different destinations, they generally need the type of skills found in TVET colleges. We formed a desk where we will work with the selected few students, and apply for passports for them. We don’t want this programme to be just for food donations and jobs, it is a programme to build people for tomorrow.”
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