Cape Town – With a bleak festive season looming for 1 000 Khayelitsha residents who lost all their possessions in a recent shack fire, a Chinese organisation and the Chinese Consulate have stepped in with a large donation of non-perishable food items for them.
The South Africa Soong Ching Ling Foundation and the Chinese Consulate in Cape Town handed the donation over in a church hall in Mandela Park, Khayelitsha, yesterday.
The donation comprised a food hamper of large packets of sugar, salt, cake flour, rice, tea, tins of fish and bottles of cooking oil for each of the families.
Dignitaries addressing about 300 of the affected residents included the foundation’s chairperson Chen Qing, Chinese Consul-General in Cape Town Wang Yihan and ANC MP Leonard Ramatlakane.
Wang said: “It’s almost a month since the Khayelitsha tragic fire which left more than 1 000 people homeless. These people are always on the minds of the local Chinese community.
“That’s why this team from the South Africa Soong Ching Ling Foundation is here to bring the things most-needed to the victims of the fire. It will help them to have a good holiday season.”
They added that the foundation’s yellow T-shirt-clad team who had brought the donation consisted of members of the local Chinese community, who include doctors, teachers and business owners who do charity work in various Cape Town communities.
Parliamentary Whip of the Multi-Party Women’s Focus and Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Auditor-General, ANC MP Nthabiseng Khunou, said she had raised the plight of the residents with a Chinese friend connected to the foundation.
“I’m really grateful that today this donation is happening. They brought a lot of grocery essentials for 300 families. Every year they host a Christmas party for orphans.”