SALGA donates Personal Protective Equipment to Emakhazeni Local Municipality

Posted: 01 August 2020

For the 2020 Nelson Mandela Day commemoration, SALGA in Mpumalanga donated Personal Protective Equipment to Emakhazeni Local Municipality. The handover took place virtually on the 31st of July 2020 and was supported by Nedbank and Bonitas, who sponsored face masks, hand sanitisers and temperature scanners. SALGA provided face masks, face shields, hand sanitisers and hand wash to the municipality.

Every year, in July, our country and the whole world celebrate the Nelson Mandela Month. The main reason we hold these Nelson Mandela events every July is to commemorate the 67 years that Nelson Mandela spent fighting for social justice in our country.  It has been a tradition of SALGA to participate in this commemoration on an annual basis by providing hands on support to local level projects on Nelson Mandela Day. This activity is rotated among the three districts on an annual basis and at each cycle a local municipality is identified in the district. This year Nelson Mandela day comes at a time when the whole world is fighting COVID-19 pandemic. Our country is experiencing an increase in infections and deaths due to this pandemic.

“We have learnt from Health professionals and scientists that the Coronavirus thrives in the winter season and in the cold environment. Emakhazeni is part of the Highveld and escarpment which is prone to very low temperatures during the winter season.  Therefore it is an opportune time for Emakhazeni to benefit from this initiative. It is our hope that SALGA’s contribution will assist the municipality in protecting both employees, councillors and the community at large from this disease that we are facing”, said SALGA Provincial Executive Committee member Cllr Mavis Charles as she gave the purpose of the event.

SALGA Deputy Chairperson Cllr. Sylvia Nxumalo gave a brief on the beneficiaries of the donated items. “The essential workers that should benefit from the donation include the frontline workers within the municipality - Waste Management Workers, Municipal health Services Workers, Disaster Management and emergency services Workers, Municipal traffic services officials, Security services workers, Cashiers and enquiries personnel in revenue halls, and HIV, STI and TB and special unit officials”, said Cllr. Nxumalo.

SALGA would like to thank the sponsors Bonitas and Nedbank in responding to the request to donate Personal Protective Equipment to help the municipality fight the spread of COVID-19 as they provide services to the entire community.