Nelson Mandela Bay Executive Mayor, Cllr Zanoxolo Wayile, joined the Municipality’s Expanded Public Works Programme and members of the Education Task Team to distribute school uniforms and stationery to learners in need at the Malabar Primary School today.
The children who received uniforms, shoes and stationery were Malabar Primary School victims of a bus crash on 26 June this year, children who lost their belongings in a fire in Walmer and orphans from New Brighton who were living in child headed homes.
The majority of the beneficiaries were the survivors of the bus crash, where 71 learners from Malabar Primary School who involved. Luckily, there were no fatalities in the accident, but one learner, 13-year-old Buhle Feni, has been readmitted to Provincial Hospital for more operations as a result of her injuries.
The uniform handover is an extension of the Municipality’s Education Task Team’s uniform collection drive that took place earlier this year. The beggar-in-chief campaign, led by Mayor Wayile, saw many prominent businesspeople, Councillors and municipal officials venture into the city’s shopping malls with begging boards and barefoot to beg for donations of school shoes and uniforms. The Municipality managed to collect a large number of school shoes and uniforms, which will be distributed to learners in need.
Malabar Primary School principal, Crispin Abrahams, said the school felt fortunate to have the Executive Mayor to deliver some words of encouragement to the victims of the bus accident.
Mayor Wayile said that the Municipality acknowledged the challenges facing education in the city.
“Questions were posed about why as a local state the Municipality is preoccupied with education, but we are saying that as a development local government we have an overarching role,” he said.
Mayor Wayile encouraged the victims of the bus accident to keep strong, and not to lose focus.
Mayor Wayile also visited the injured Buhle Feni at the Provincial Hospital, and encouraged her to “stay strong and to recover well.”
Buhle said she felt very special that the Mayor came to see her and offer his support.
Mayor Wayile paid a special visit to Malabar Primary School learner, Buhle Feni, at the Provincial Hospital. Buhle is one of the learners seriously injured and still in hospital after a bus crash on their way home from school on 26 June this year. Accompanying Mayor Wayile was EPWP employee and Education Task Team member, Madoda Mcwabeni. Picture: Lauren Human
