Mandela Day campaign from SAB

"We care about the communities in which we operate and improving the lives of people living in those communities is entrenched in our company strategy and in our identity. We work hard to fulfil the vision of making every day a Mandela Day and the partnerships that we have built this year will demonstrate how a strong collaborative approach can effectively help us achieve this objective," says Vincent Maphai, SAB executive director corporate affairs and transformation.

SAB's Soul Ambassadors will lead initiatives across the country. These are employees who play an active role in transforming communities in their personal capacity, and who act as role models for their fellow colleagues.

Hospitals, library, home visits

In Gauteng, Premier Nomvula Mokonyane and the company will officially mark the beginning of their work to refurbish a paediatric ward at Chris Hani Baragwaneth Hospital, with the unveiling of a plaque. The ward will be transformed into an education centre with a library and rooms for use by registrars and consultants. Both will also hand out teddy bears to children in the hospital's paediatric ward on the day.

Meanwhile, in downtown Johannesburg at the Usindiso Shelter for Women and Children, around 200 company employees will help to restore the facility's library and provide a much needed facelift for the building. Additionally, it will offer resident women computer skills training throughout the day and their children will be fed a nutritious meal. Kaya FM DJ and SA personality, Bob Mabena, will broadcast his 6-9am show live from Usindiso.

The company will also visit Epworth Children's Home, Jan Hofmeyer Community Projects, Bakone Community Home Based Care and Oliver's House, all in Johannesburg, where employees will hand over much needed blankets, food and equipment.

KwaZulu-Natal has early start

Mandela Day began early for the company in KwaZulu-Natal, with a partnership between it, the Provincial Department of Agriculture, Environmental Affairs and Rural Development and South Africa's First Lady, Bongi Ngema Zuma, kicking off on Friday 13 July. The team sponsored gardening equipment and sewing machines to the Ziphateleni Community Centre in Umbumbulu, which provides home-based care for the patients affected by HIV/AIDS.

Today, its teams will be deployed to provide much needed gardening equipment, blankets, food parcels and kitchen equipment to community organisations across KwaZulu-Natal. The company's Pietermaritzburg branch has partnered with Dr May Mkhize, KwaZulu-Natal's First Lady, to assist Sekunjalo Project, a non-profit organisation assisting vulnerable children and women by providing jojo tanks for water supply and gardening equipment.

In the Ethekwini municipality district, the company and the Mayor Councillor, James Nxumalo, will be visiting community organisation Enhlanhleni Isibani Sezwe. The community, which focuses on assisting people affected by HIV/AIDS, will benefit by receiving new kitchen equipment to assist the organisation in providing meals at their soup kitchens.

Western Cape fosters culture

In the Western Cape, it is one of 28 businesses that have partnered with the City of Cape Town, the Boundless Heart Foundation and health and education institutions, to establish a mobile library in the impoverished, temporary relocation area of Blikkiesdorp. The library will service the community's adults and children and is built using a shipping container.

Additionally, the residents of Symphony Way in Delft will have their homes and public spaces painted by 100 employees. Photographers will set up a street art studio and take family portraits. Other activities on the day include the planting of trees and vegetables, HIV/AIDS awareness and testing, TB screening and a Mobile Museum from Iziko Museums.

Mpumalanga, Central Region go environmental

In Perdekop, Mpumalanga, the company and the provincial department of Finance, through the MEC's Constituency Outreach Initiative, will refurbish the home of a destitute family of 10 children. The children and their widowed guardian became homeless after being evicted from a local farm. MEC Pinky Phosa and her team, together with the company's employees, will refurbish the house and help with the landscaping of the garden.

Its Central Region, which covers parts of the Free State, Northern Cape and the North West, has been inspired by an environmental theme, and will adopt a number of public parks, which employees will help to clean on Mandela Day and in the future.