July 18, 2011: SANTACO President took time off his busy boardroom schedules to celebrate the selfless life of Nelson Mandela by dedicating his Mandela Day to an unheard story of the disabled children in the Qwa Qwa village.
President Mthembu who was flanked by the Secretary General Philip Taaibosch, Deputy Secretary General Bafana Magagula, Chief Executive Officer Bongani Mthembu, management and staff of SANTACO spent the time at the Itsoseng Self Help Organisation for the Disabled Children (ISHODC) painting and cleaning. TaxiChoice Managing Director Jothan Msibi who made a personal donation of R4000 was also part of the 67 minutes of goodwill at the ISHODC.
The decision to commit 67 minutes of Mandela Day to ISHODC was raised by the SANTACO Hlokomela campaign Blitz Programme in the Free State in an emotionally painful encounter that swayed SANTACO President to take ISHODC to heart. SANTACO painted and cleaned ISHODC, visited the residential place of the children there and had lunch with them whose transportation in between the two places is equally a problem for these bodily impaired children. SANTACO took interest in the ISHODC primarily because it fits with the objectives of the Hlokomela campaign. The Hlokomela campaign which is popularly known for its call for road safety and self-responsibility in the taxi industry to ensure the latter, commits SANTACO to social responsibility efforts. For this reason SANTACO President, has deferred the subsequent activities between to the taxi industry and the ISHODC to SANTACO Free State.
But the ISHODC still requires more work to provide for the nature of lives of the impaired to move freely, access ISHODC facilities like restrooms easily and reliable transport for movement in between residence and ISHODC. Hence, SANTACO wish to call on the public and business to become partners in an effort to afford the disabled at ISHODC find an equally convenient life that we enjoy in our daily lives. We need to remind ourselves that while we yearly celebrate the Mandela Day on July 18, 2011, the purpose of Mandela Day seeks to create lasting change and improvement of lives (in our contribution) beyond his birthday. This is becuase of we take this inspirational and motivating tradition from the personality of the very man we celebrate from year to year.