Cape Town - Olfa Solomons was in Hermanus when she heard about the fire at Hout Bay on Saturday. She drove straight back to the city without hesitation, and was on the scene working out of the fire station to help feed those who were fighting one of the most devastating fires that the Western Cape has seen.
The Pick n Pay regional customer service manager and colleagues worked through Saturday night, grabbing only a few hours’ sleep before going back to pull another all-nighter on Sunday.
Solomons is well known for her expertise at the scene of fires: “The first thing I did was phone five of our stores and ask them to provide pots of food and water for the firefighters and all the disaster management teams that were fighting the fire. It’s best to work from the fire station and we took over the feeding and stayed on the scene with staff from our customer services team until Wednesday,” said Solomons.
An alert went out to the stores closest to the fire - Hout Bay, Camps Bay, Constantia, and Longbeach - to immediately put out trolleys for donations from customers in store. Another call went out for trucks to deliver food and donations to the site.
Trolleys were subsequently set up in all Western Cape Pick n Pay stores.
Added to the public’s donations was the food donated by Pick n Pay and Momentum following the cancelled Cape Town Cycle Tour. Refreshment stations and hospitality tents from the race were directed to victims of the fire who were being given shelter by the City.
Pick n Pay also donated an immediate R50 000 for the relief efforts.
Thula Thula, an NGO operating in Hout Bay, was on the scene alongside other NGOs and volunteers to help. From organising food for those who had lost their homes, and assisting with registering people with the City, to sorting through the piles of clothing delivered from stores across the province that were being dropped off directly by the public at Ambleside School in Hout Bay, everyone on the scene was rushed off their feet.
Vice-chairman of Thula Thula Anthony Chemaly said: “Pick n Pay has been amazing in the way they have helped everything we have asked for we’ve been given. And Olfa and her team have worked alongside us”.
As Solomons, Brent Wessels, and Dilnawaaz Naidoo (who all work for Pick n Pay) are walking down to the sports field where the registration tents and food distribution areas are housed, Solomons gets a call. It’s Pick n Pay Head Office wanting to know how many more people she needs from stores to help move clothing from storage at Snoekies warehouse to the sorting centre.
“I need 30 strong people tomorrow from Gardens and Waterfront,” says Solomons - knowing her request will immediately be answered.