Witkoppen Clinic celebrates Nelson Mandela Day with heartfelt community service
Sbonga Shange, marketing and communications manager, explained that guided by Madiba's enduring words, 'there can be no greater gift than that of giving one's time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return,' their team embraced the spirit of selfless service by dedicating their 67 minutes to the centre.
In a heartfelt gesture of gratitude, Witkoppen Clinic staff spent the day uplifting 67 elderly community members. The celebration included a warm meal, toiletry packs, dessert, and a lively music session that brought joy and laughter to all. Together, they prayed, sang, and celebrated life in a way that truly captured the essence of Mandela Day.
Also read: Homes celebrates Mandela Day with joy
Shange said that this memorable day of service was made possible through the generous support of their valued partners. 'We extend our deepest appreciation to Pick n Pay Dainfern, Lonehill, and Fourways Crossing; EVR Water; Food Lovers Market Fourways; and Astron Energy Dainfern. Your contributions helped create a day of dignity, care, and celebration for our elders.'
The festivities continued at Witkoppen Clinic, where additional partners devoted their 67 minutes by donating blankets, meals, and toiletry packs to their patients and staff.
The kindness and compassion are deeply appreciated, and we are grateful for your continued partnership. 'Together, we demonstrated the power of community and compassion — a true reflection of Nelson Mandela's legacy.'
Follow us on our Whatsapp channel, Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok for the latest updates and inspiration!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Citizen
15 hours ago
- The Citizen
Lowvelders show their heart on Mandela Day
Giving back to the community is in Lowvelders' blood. On July 18, in honour of Mandela Day, locals rolled up their sleeves to donate blood at the iSecure blood drive, helping to save lives and celebrate the spirit of giving. ALSO READ: SANBS holds its Bleedathon blood drive in Mbombela The atmosphere was upbeat throughout the day, with donors standing a chance to win fantastic prizes, including a weekend getaway for six at River Creek in Marloth Park, a dining voucher at Panarottis i'langa Mall, and a three-month complimentary alarm monitoring service from iSecure. Gourmet hampers filled with wine, chocolates, fudge, and other indulgent treats were also up for grabs, along with pamper packages from Levory Studio and Face to the Wind. ALSO READ: Loyal donors honoured by Nelspruit SANBS A total of 89 units of blood were collected – enough to save numerous lives and make a lasting impact.
Mail & Guardian
2 days ago
- Mail & Guardian
Taking back the Soweto night with Nomsa Mazwai and Rapsody
#FunkItImWalking: Nomsa Mazwai organised the walk that started from the Soweto Theatre. Photos: Arthur Dlamini This past Friday I walked for nearly 3km through the streets of Jabavu in Soweto from 8pm to 10pm on a winter night in July. That might sound crazy, but it was actually a lot of fun. I was part of a group of 100 people and along the way we chanted and sang with Karabo Ya Morena, a youth choir from Soweto that were part of our parade. At the front of the crowd, leading us through the streets and keeping the energy up, was Nomsa Mazwai, the originator of Soweto Night Out. At every stop she would yell out 'Funk it, I'm walking!' and the crowd would yell back 'Let's walk to freedom!' What were we thinking, you might ask? Well, partly it was a unique way to celebrate Nelson Mandela Day. But it was also a chance to meet American Grammy award-winning musician and respected emcee Rapsody, who was in the country working on her next album and who joined in on every step of the way. For most of us, the journey started in Rosebank, where we boarded a bus courtesy of the organisers, which was really appreciated because it muted any worries about transport from Soweto back to town, especially after a long night out. We arrived at Soweto Theatre where we gathered on the front steps and enjoyed a welcome performance by the youth choir while people clamoured to get their photo opportunities with our illustrious American guest — including yours truly, because there's nothing wrong with pausing work mode to have a fan moment. After that we started our walk, accompanied by members of the community policing forum, walking up and down the Jabavu streets with white banners with 'Soweto Night Out Tours' written on them at the back and front of the procession. 'What we like to say about ourselves is that we are an alternative protest,' says Mazwai. 'When you look at us in the street, we look like a protest, but we're not. We're a business. Everybody there is making money. We're solving the unemployment crisis in South Africa. We're solving the crime crisis in South Africa. It's a drop in the ocean. We are not government. 'If we were the government, it would be far greater impact, but we are not. So we are doing what we can, where we can, in the ways that we can do it. And this is just one of the ways that we do it. 'And we are a performance to the community of the possibilities of safety because we've shown communities that there is an economic value to safety and we've unlocked it for the communities that we work in.' The origin of these walking tours, which Mazwai now hosts for paid groups of at least 20 people on request, stretches back for more than a decade, when she returned to South Africa after living abroad for years in places such as New York in the United States and Newcastle in the United Kingdom. 'I love walking, and I've lived in other parts of the world where I walked everywhere, any time of day, all the time,' says Mazwai. 'And when I came back, I realised I was feeling down because I wasn't getting to walk.' So she said, 'Fuck it, I'm walking!' Mazwai even wrote a Facebook post about how she wasn't going to let anything stop her from walking around as she did when she lived abroad. It was a friend who encouraged her to make the slogan more child-friendly and so she started saying 'Funk it, I'm walking!' instead. At first it was an activist movement that would mobilise walks in support of various causes such as for water with the World Wide Fund for Nature. But when Mazwai left her job at the Soweto Theatre, where she had spent five years as the general manager, she decided to set her mind to building #FunkItImWalking into a business. Mazwai put years of research into developing it into a sustainable social enterprise, drawing on her background in economics as a Fulbright alumna with an MA in international political economy and development from Fordham University in the US. 'It took a while but eventually we zeroed in on what our mission or intention was. And it's that #FunkItImWalking aims to make it safe for a woman to walk at any time of day, in any condition. And how it does that is by thinking about sustainable businesses that enable women's safety. 'Because I am an activist woman, I have been part of the marches and the seminars where we call the president to come and account. I've been part of all of those things and they've yielded zero results. The talking has yielded nothing. There'll be a law that's passed. Then they say they're opening centres but the material condition on the ground has not changed. 'And I think for myself, I believe that's because South Africa decided to be a neoliberal country and it decided to follow that economic policy. That economic policy puts capitalism at its centre. It sees capitalism as the answer. And capitalism puts money above all else. And so it became very clear to me that if I wanted to enjoy safety as a woman, it had to make economic sense,' says Mazwai. After leaving Soweto Theatre, we first made our way to Kwa-Khaya Lendaba, the late great Credo Mutwa's cultural village. Once we entered the compound it was so dark we had to use our phone lights to guide our steps. I asked my friend if we weren't absolutely sure we weren't being led to a mass sacrifice. Seth Mazibuko, a June 16 Soweto uprising leader, talks to Grammy winner Rapsody Fortunately, there were no sacrifices, and it turned out to be worth the journey. Once we got to the centre of the compound we sat around the bonfire and listened to Zamalek Giza, a rasta sage, tell us about the life of Credo Mutwa and the fables about creation and the universe. After that we hit the road again, walking past the notorious Jabulani flats. 'The Jabulani flats are one of the most dangerous parts of Soweto,' says Mazwai. 'I'm sure people have read about them a lot in the news. There's always drama there, but there's never drama when we do our night tours because our CPOs [community policing officers] are within the community and the community understands the value that we're bringing into that community. 'Our night walks are incident free to this point. In addition to that, we also work with the Seth Mazibuko Foundation, which is a heritage and youth development-focused foundation. So where we are very focused on women's safety, they are very focused on youth employment as well as heritage. And so working with Seth, we then started incorporating heritage sites into the routes. Now, because of the way communities have welcomed our work, the museums also came on board and they open at night.' We made our way to the June 16 Memorial Acre, which opened after hours just for us. And then finally we walked to Native Rebels, a restaurant and our last stop of the night. It was there where we sat down to watch the main attraction —Rapsody in conversation with the legendary activist Seth Mazibuko. While some may have initially thought Rapsody would be the one answering questions, it turned out she was interviewing Mazibuko. Their conversation touched on a variety of themes including activism, youth engagement, Pan-Africanism and the future of South Africa. 'I see Rapsody as a voice of the youth,' says Mazwai. 'She has built a career that is very conscious, very grounded, and wholesome, and I love that. And so I believed that for Rapsody to level up, she really needs to hear from somebody who changed the trajectory of an entire nation. 'I feel like myself and Rapsody are soldiers on the same battlefield, fighting on the same side, you know, for the lives and the livelihoods of young black people and for black people and brown people all around the world. 'And so when I spoke to her, I said, 'You know, Rapsody, a lot of young people don't know Seth Mazibuko, and you don't know Seth Mazibuko. And so I want you to ask questions that you would ask Seth Mazibuko. ''I don't want to tell you what to ask him, because what I want you to do is to ask him the questions that young people in South Africa are afraid to ask because they don't want to look stupid.' I wanted young people to watch their hero not know and be so willing to know and be so fearless in asking because Rapsody has that skill of not being afraid to ask. She wants to know.' The night ended at about midnight, and I boarded the bus back to Rosebank feeling physically tired but spiritually uplifted and inspired. It was the kind of night that reminded me what's possible when people come together with purpose, creativity and a little bit of courage. In a country where safety is too often a privilege, not a right, a night out reminded me that joy, community and economic opportunity can carve out new paths through even the most neglected corners of our cities. Walking through Soweto in the company of song, story and solidarity, I felt like we weren't just remembering the past. We were actively imagining a better future. And for a few beautiful hours, it felt within reach.
Daily Maverick
3 days ago
- Daily Maverick
Dine like Madiba: Culture and cuisine in the shoes of two great men
Two great men? The other man is my dad, my hero, but of course the shoes we are talking about in this story were worn by one great man: Nelson Mandela, with whom my dad happens to share a birthday. Last Sunday, we dined like Madiba on a very special day in our lives. My family's dining room table in our home in Jersey City is not only reserved for plates and utensils, but for my father's copy of Long Walk to Freedom. For as long as I can remember, the historical text has had an assigned spot on the table right next to his laptop, his unofficial workspace. The 500-page book chronicles Nelson Manelda's road to liberation before, during and post apartheid. The autobiography details his childhood until adulthood, with his continued fight for freedom. In November 2009, the United Nations recognised 18 July as Mandela Day, celebrating his life and legacy. Some people choose to observe the day by engaging in acts of service for 67 minutes. Across the street from my new internship at Market Photo Workshop, I watched community members pick up garbage to clean the premises. Dave Moletsane, digital communications officer of the Market Theatre, Aneesa Adams, social media and content manager, and Xoliswa Nduneni Ngema, CEO of the Joburg City Theatre could be seen walking around organising with a team as their commitment for Mandela day. 'We came out in large numbers to honor Tata and to work as a collective as a city and the Market Theatre as well,' said Ndudeni Negma. Though 'Tata's' (isiXhosa word for father) birthday was on Friday, it was also the birthday of an important man in my life, my father Roger Campbell. To pay homage to the humanitarian and create a memorable 60th birthday for my dad, we 'Dined like Madiba' at Insights Restaurant inside Sanctuary Mandela on Sunday, the result of an invitation by their marketers to dine there and write about it for Daily Maverick. Sanctuary Mandela opened in September 2021. Prior to the public reveal, the tranquil hotel was known as Mandela's first home in Johannesburg after his prison release in 1990 until 1998. The now reimagined home is a curated room boutique owned by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, a nonprofit aiming to uplift humanity through social change that honours the life of Madiba through the preservation of furniture, photographs and even a curated menu. Inside the boutique-style hotel is Insights Restaurant — and the Dine like Madiba experience, an opportunity to reintroduce traditional South African cuisine to locals using native spices while also introducing the Xhosa culture to tourists through the recipes of Xoliswa Ndoyiya, Nelson Mandela's cherished chef. Upon arrival, my parents and I took pictures of the Sanctuary Mandela sign outside of the gated restaurant while waiting to be buzzed in. I looked over at my father, a history enthusiast and Mandela admirer, to see if he approved of his birthday surprise. Truth be told, he has experienced a few of the Mandela gems in South Africa such as his home on Vilakazi Street and even Nelson Mandela Square, but not Robben Island due to maintenance issues, so I was eager to see his reaction to the Madiba-inspired restaurant in his former home. What I was not expecting was the in-depth historical tour of the country's beloved former president. After my parents and I entered the tranquil garden, including the pillars of Mandela's values such as freedom and democracy, we walked up the steps of the boutique. Our host, Tshepo (meaning 'hope' in Sesotho) Kunene greeted us. 'Welcome home,' Tshepo said. On my first day in Johannesburg, I went on a tour of Soweto. Walking around Vilakazi Street is when I heard 'Welcome home' for the first time since walking through customs in this country. How do I explain to people that a country that I have no residence in feels like home? You have to visit the country to experience the warmth for yourself. Hearing an unfamiliar voice warmly embrace me into their homeland was all of the comfort that I needed to feel as though I belonged, and that perhaps living in a new country for three months wouldn't feel so foreign after all. I smiled and shook Tshepo's hand. As I mentioned, I truly wasn't expecting a tour of the premises. Instead, I was prepared to sit at a table for three with my parents and try the dishes the humanitarian once ordered. Guests at the hotel are not the only customers who have the opportunity to receive a tour of Mandela's former home — diners also get a glimpse of the estate. After we were seated at our table, Tshepo asked if we were ready to begin our tour, and we surely were. The four of us walked back outside the boutique to start from the beginning. Reading the artefacts and scanning the photographs paled in comparison to Tshepo's ability to articulate the culinary and living experience available at Sanctuary Mandela. Each hanging painting tells a story about the significance of the room. The room called 'Mr President' has a painting of Mandela greeting children, showing his love for young people. Beyond the paintings and photos, the boutique attempts to resemble the original structure of the house. The fireplace, foundation of the pool and the famous balcony of the house have been preserved to represent the essence of Mandela's former residence. After the tour, your experience doesn't have to end with the admiration of an artwork of Nelson Mandela made out of wood — at 'Dine like Madiba', expect a five-course meal filled with history, culture and good company. Sanctuary Mandela is also the home for black and locally owned wine brands, including Carmen Stevens, who is the first black female winemaker in South Africa, inspired by Mandela himself; she includes his quotes on the back of her bottles. Tshepo wiped a bottle of Stevens' to show us — and behind the bottle was this quote: 'If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.' At first, I was hesitant to ask for a glass of wine or recommend we also try the wine pairing since I'd be dining with my parents, but when my father, who seldom drinks, and in his words 'only on special occasions', asked for another glass of the Boschendal Vin D'Or Noble Late Forest, I knew he felt the same way that my mom Joryn and I did — can a glass of wine really be this sweet? Wine it is. It was time to order our food after touring. On our tables were sealed white envelopes with the rusted-brown initials at the centre, SM, for Sanctuary Mandela. After opening the envelope, the five-course meal options were available as promised. 'Our menu is a historical 'food-print' of the modest tastes of Nelson Mandela, whose passion and integrity are reflected in the dishes that were inspired from Africa and beyond,' reads the menu. Recipes from the cookbook Made with Love, by his personal chef of 22 years, Xoliswa Ndoyiya, are also included in the menu selection. The cherished chef not only cooked for Mandela, but also his family. Our complimentary bite arrived first — homemade bread, which is freshly made every day, was placed on the table along with a mini board of three options for the spread — salt, black pepper and hemp butter. Although I am a pescatarian, I am quite the experimental person. I applied a thin layer of hemp butter on the bread and then sprinkled salt and black pepper before taking a bite into buttery and seasoned heaven. Let's just say, my dad asked for more. Next was the appetiser: mushroom and samp arancini with aïoli base topped with rocket microherbs for the garnish, paired with Boschendal Brut. The garlic base and the egg-white batter used to cook the crispy appetiser allowed us to taste hints of lime juice with the sparkling wine. As someone who is not a fan of mushrooms, the appetiser had me second-guessing the judgement of my taste buds. Next, we were served the starters: Cape Malay-style fish, butternut and saffron soup, and seared ostrich (all including rocket for the garnish). I am not the only one with a dietary restriction, though my mom's needs aren't by preference — she is allergic to fresh fish. She selected the butternut and saffron soup, which was paired with Carmen Stevens' Chenin Blanc. Tshepo shared with us that butternut squash was Mandela's last meal. Since my mom's dish was a vegetarian option, I picked up my spoon to try it. The creaminess of the soup was met with the immediate sweetness on the toasted slice of bread. Before I got carried away, I put the spoon back on the table. No one ordered the seared ostrich, which was plated with chakalaka, charred onion and an onion purée, not for any particular reason but my guess is none of us had ever tried ostrich, leaving my dad and I with the Cape fish: the crispy top layer of the kinglip, paired with the pawpaw curried salsa, pumpkin seeds and shavings paired with a Paul Cluver Riesling. Tshepo was right, the hint of sugar from the wine soothed the slight spice. Though I was craving more fish, I decided to switch up my order for my main course — buttery samp and mfino 'risotto', a dish inspired by Xhosa cuisine. The maize kernels, sliced carrots and creamy spinach topped with parmesan shavings with a Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay complemented the creamy dish while also cleansing my palate in time for the dessert. My parents both ordered the fillet on the bone, which was crusted beef with pink peppercorn, garlic mashed potatoes, finely trimmed carrot shavings, creamy Béarnaise sauce and port jus, soy sauce topped with rocket and a glass of Cederberg Cabernet Sauvignon. In case you were wondering, the other main dish that was tempting to order was the coconut and lime sea bass, which would have been paired with the Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay. We all had a different dessert to satisfy our sweet tooths: my dad had the sticky toffee pudding, I ordered the poached pear and amasi ice cream or sour milk with homemade breadcrumbs for the base, and my mom had the creamy pear custard, almond and barozzi cake, which she took to go. Even with the hints of sourness, the breadcrumbs, and slight spice from the peach pudding, the Boschendal Vin D'Or Noble Late Forest makes you forget that you are eating fermented milk. Before we left the restaurant, in my father's traditional fashion he asked to have his photo taken with the staff at Sanctuary Mandela. If you know my dad, you become his friend after one interaction — his kindness and personality draws people to him. The group of us posed for the photo, and you would think we were regulars. From reliving history through a tour of Mandela's previous residence to tasting the meals his chef would cook for him, Dine like Madiba at Insights Restaurant inside Sanctuary Mandela is a unique experience of Tata's once-cherished cuisine and beloved home. 'The whole concept of their house is to give you the whole reflection of Tata's love for having people around. Hence you say 'Welcome home. You are more than welcome at home,'' said Tshepo with a bow, as we departed. DM
