Johannesburg - Emalahleni executive mayor Linah Malatjie has expressed gratitude to the companies that have helped with emergency food aid that has brought relief in the municipality during the coronavirus lockdown.
Malatjie said the municipality received thousands of rand worth of food donations for Emalahleni residents from the Pan African Business Forum (PABF) and African Gold Medallion (AMG).
The food donations were meant for some of the residents in the 160 informal settlements in Emalahleni. The mayor said many in the Victor Khanye municipality are not able to go to work at all during the lockdown and had their lives had been disrupted by an unexpected loss of income.
Commenting on behalf of the mayor, John Sikhosana from her office, said: "As a nation when things like this happen, we try our best to help. However, with the limited resources we have as a municipality, we were not serving our people the way we wanted to. We then issued a notice for individuals with means or companies to help out. AMG heeded our call and we hope others come onboard as well.
"Most of the people that benefited from the donation are informal workers like hawkers and vendors. The lockdown has hit them very hard and these are desperate times for them," he said
Sikhosana said the high levels of unemployment in the area exacerbated the problem.
The AMG's coronavirus relief has pledged R25 million from their initial R10 million announced last month – which includes providing food and sanitation assistance to the underprivileged in support of the Covid-19 relief efforts of the government.
The company has since made similar donations in Alexandra and Mamelodi.
Said AMG CEO Itai Maunganidze: “The Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect the impoverished communities across South Africa and as an international organisation with corporate responsibility it is our duty to lend our hand to those in need.
"President Cyril Ramaphosa has requested all of us to open our hearts and to help flatten the curve,” he said.
Representing the PABF, Ladislas Agbesi, said: “As Africans, we can’t allow other people to come to help our own people when as business people we are around. We have decided to commit this multimillion-rand support to local people in municipalities and rural areas. We will go to any area that the government has decided. We will fight this pandemic together and win.”