The Nelson Mandela Foundation requested that the activities of this year’s Mandela Day be linked to the theme “Climate, food and solidarity”. The foundation also called for the planting of trees and supporting community food gardens worldwide.

Clean City SA answered the call.

“We wanted to make sure that the work that we are doing today is combined with what the Nelson Mandela Foundation is doing, which is talking about food security, talking about climate change, and solidarity,” Dalu Cele, the CEO and founder of Clean Cities SA, said at Constitution Hill.

“So, [Constitution Hill] was a fitting place for us to be able to plant indigenous trees to mitigate the effects of climate change.”

The organisation also planted vegetables and herbs at 3 Kotze Street, which is a homeless shelter.

The event included people from the plastic and recycling industries, exhibiting recycling materials and demonstrating what they are doing to reduce waste. 

Cele said the activities of the day adhered to the UN Sustainable Development Goals of fighting hunger, responsible consumption and production, and climate action.

“The planting of the trees is climate action, then fighting hunger is the planting of veggies and herbs … responsible production and consumption … is basically how you produce your packaging material for recycling,” he said.  

“This is a lasting solution we’ve made here in terms of planting trees for climate action. The veggies that we’ve planted are from the garden to the kitchen, to the tables, and somebody will be fed from those veggies, so we believe it’s sustainable.” 

CleanCitySA, in association with Clean Up & Recycle South Africa, hosted its second annual Mandela Day at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. (Photo: Gaby Ndongo)

CleanCitySA, in association with Clean Up & Recycle South Africa, organised activities like planting indigenous trees at Constitution Hill. (Photo: Gaby Ndongo)

CleanCitySA, in association with Clean Up & Recycle South Africa, organised a clean-up drive at Constitution Hill.(Photo: Gaby Ndongo)

Cleaning up the country, one day at a time 

Douw Steyn, the sustainability director at Plastics SA, said they had decided to support Clean Cities SA and use Mandela Day as an opportunity to launch Clean-up and Recycle Week, which is from 11 to 16 September. 

“We, as the plastic industry, believe plastics don’t litter, people do. So we need to encourage people to clean up this country and encourage people to recycle.  

“We live in a beautiful country and we all have a responsibility as an industry, as a community, as citizens of this country. Let’s all clean up this country and make it a beautiful, clean, healthy country.”  

Esha Mansingh, the executive head of corporate affairs and sustainability for sub-Saharan Africa at DP World, said Mandela Day is when communities come together and commemorate the values of making a social impact, inspired by Nelson Mandela and his principles. 

“We’re here at Constitution Hill and we’re looking at cleaning up the streets. There’s a lot of litter around us. We want to keep things clean so that we can have a cleaner, brighter generation for our children and our grandchildren to come,” she said.  

“We’re also going to be embarking on planting some trees … to be more environmentally friendly, and to do away with just having a concrete jungle around us in Johannesburg.” 

Corruption Watch ran a soup kitchen at its offices in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. (Photo: Gaby Ndongo)

Corruption Watch produced 100 meals, which were distributed to food insecure and/or homeless people in and around Braamfontein. (Photo: Gaby Ndongo)

Corruption Watch ran a soup kitchen for the food insecure and/or homeless people in and around Braamfontein, including persons with injuries at Pieter Roos Park. (Photo: Gaby Ndongo)

Corruption Watch’s drive to fight food insecurity in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. (Photo: Gaby Ndongo)

Team effort to feed 100 at soup kitchen

To mark Mandela Day, Corruption Watch ran a soup kitchen at its offices in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Its team produced just over 100 meals, which were distributed to food-insecure and/or homeless people in and around Braamfontein, including persons with injuries at Pieter Roos Park.

Kavisha Pillay, the head of stakeholder relations and campaigns at Corruption Watch, said there were three points of motivation for the soup kitchen.

First, the day provided people with the opportunity to “reflect” on the activism and values of Mandela. 

Second, the direct impact of the food kitchen was appealing as their daily work as activists consists of policy planning and implementation. This can be “demoralising” as it takes years to yield motivating results in the form of structural change.

Third, the soup kitchen encouraged a culture of volunteerism and giving back to communities.

“Even though we’re activists and we work in the social justice space, that doesn’t mean that what we’re doing in our nine-to-five jobs is enough — there are still opportunities to give back in other ways,” Pillay said. 

Nkululeko Conco, an attorney at Corruption Watch, said Mandela Day allowed him to think beyond his “direct work” and “give back to the community in some way”. He added that the day could be used as a stepping stone to do more.

“Maybe, we should actually be taking it in turns so that every single day becomes a Mandela Day in some ways, so that each day, someone out there is actually doing something similar for someone else,” Conco said, adding that he would try to participate in more community initiatives.  

Zanele Fengu, a legal researcher at Corruption Watch, shared similar sentiments, saying helping others should be a lifestyle.

“Let’s take what we’re doing today, for example, a soup kitchen that we’re hosting, feeding homeless people in and around [Braamfontein]. That’s great, they’re going to get one meal on one day in the year,” said Fengu.

“But what happens tomorrow? What happens next week? What happens next month or whatever?”

She said the soup kitchen had inspired her to help others more often. 

Fight with Insight hosted a Nelson Mandela Art Run In The City event during Mandela Day. (Photo: Supplied)

Fight with Insight’s event to emphasise the need for a healthy lifestyle. (Photo: Supplied)

Fight with Insight’s Mandela Day event. (Photo: Supplied)

Fight with Insight hosted a Nelson Mandela Art Run In The City event during Mandela Day. (Photo: Gaby Ndongo)

Exploring the inner city for Mandela 

Fight with Insight, a boxing project that aims to create a safe society for the youth of Johannesburg, hosted a “Nelson Mandela Art Run in the City” event.

Jennifer Matibi, one of the organisers of the event, said celebrating Mandela Day this way encouraged young people to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

“They could also explore the inner city where they stay on a day-to-day basis, and share their inner-city heritage with participants who were not from the inner city,” she said.  

Matibi called on people to help the organisation throughout the year, not just on Mandela Day.

“People can actually assist the organisation through coming and being a helping hand to the organisation. We deal with kids six days a week, where we offer cooking classes, a meal, sporting activities, a safe space where they can come from the inner city and receive good peer pressure.  

“So, people can help us through donations of food, clothing to assist those kids, and also giving them time to come back and be a part of the programme and engage with the kids in another space,” she said. DM