Cape Town - More than 1 000 books were collected as part of Community Chest's Mandela Day Book Mountain drive on Tuesday morning.
As part of the organisation's 67 Minutes for Madiba, it carried out a book drive which will benefit children in underprivileged communities.
Community Chest CEO Lorenzo Davids said the initiative was about more than just handing over books to schools and child and youth care centres.
"We hope with this goes with the entire concept of growing in knowledge and understanding about the world in which we live in and to make a change to it," Davids said.
Epilepsy SA, FNB, Afrizan Personnel, the Parow Senior Centre and the Cape Heritage Hotel, were among those who made generous contributions.
The books will be donated to preschools in Ashton and Mfuleni and to a school in Khayelitsha. It was not yet clear how many books in total were donated as part of the drive, with the final count only expected to be concluded by noon on Wednesday.
Community Chest hoped to reach as many schools as it could.
At noon on Tuesday a minute's silence was also observed with supporters joining hands symbolising the need for the nation to pause and reflect about what it needs.