Local YouTuber Lasziwe Dambuza addressed criticism regarding the recipients of his “R10 Goes A Long Way” campaign.
Earlier this year, the social media star kicked off an initiative to help tertiary students pay off their tuition fees, raising R1 million in five days after its launch.
Furthermore, he announced that Standard Bank had donated a further R1m towards his campaign's fundraiser.
The campaign urged other people to contribute as little as R10 to the initiative to reach the goal of R1 million.
Bigger companies like KFC donated R50 000 and Pick n Pay donated R10 000, while African Bank pledged R10 000 and 10 laptops to the cause.
Recently, many Twitter users were asking if needy students had received anything from the funds raised yet, with many users asking Lasizwe to give answers for their queries.
Addressing the drama surrounding the fundraising campaign in a video on Saturday. he said: “This is the last time I address this and talk about this. First of all, I’d like to thank every person that contributed to the R10 Goes A Long Way initiative.
“If it wasn’t for your contribution, we would not have raised R2 million.
“Second of all, myself and my team members we are not crowd funders; we’ve never done crowdfunding before, it is our first time.
“And due to it being our first time we said we don’t want to make any mistakes... Let’s partner up with an organisation called Fundi because they have access to universities. They have access to see which students have registered.”
He continued: “We transferred all the money to Fundi’s account and even some companies were waiting for tax clearance and those companies were told (to) transfer that money to Fundi’s account, Fundi would administer everything.”
Furthermore, Lasizwe asked the students who benefited from the initiative to come forward and said while he understands that corruption runs rampant, this was not the case for this initiative. And that because of the reaction he received that he’s considering not doing it again next year.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT REGARDING THE 2 MILLION: For immediate release pic.twitter.com/ETaC0r6kCI
— Lasizwe (@lasizwe) August 28, 2021
His sister, Khanyi Mbau, also showed her support for her brother and shared that she’s heartbroken with how he’s being treated online and that Fundi needs to clear up around the recipients.
This breaks my heart , not only because you are my brother but how we a good gesture could turn so bad and we forget the intention behind @lasizwe starting this. Funda can we please get an explanation for on this unfortunate case affecting the nation. https://t.co/3j3jmb012v
— KHANYI MBAU (@MbauReloaded) August 28, 2021
Following this, Fundi released a statement regarding the distribution of the funds.
STATEMENT:
— Kgopolo (@PhilMphela) August 28, 2021
FundiFund says around R2,2-million was pledged to #R10GoesALongWay
Around half (R1,07-million) received
106 students’ registration has been paid
R530K has been paid out already
R542K balance on the received pledges is being processed
Read exact figures below pic.twitter.com/JF4Ukq85tU
Students who received funding from the initiative also stepped forward to say that they have gotten assists from the campaign via Fundi.
I personally received the money from Fundi. I received a call that asked me to send proof of registration. They sent me an email saying that the university should let me register as they would pay the money. They indeed paid the money a few weeks later and it reflects- https://t.co/hmTrDd7CnM
— MaLwandle (@BamanyeSaki) August 28, 2021
@lasizwe Sorry for keeping Quiet. I'm one of the students who benefited from the #R10goesalongway initiative, 6k was paid for me. pic.twitter.com/hx9B5fzgXJ
— 🐼Panda (@TlholoheloLebi1) August 28, 2021
I am one of the students who benefited from @lasizwe initiative #R10GoesALongway. https://t.co/Tph263I2it pic.twitter.com/ENnhnD8IRm
— Thabonyana Maoto (@MaotoThido) August 28, 2021