Durban - Durban has heeded to the call to improve the country by doing their bit for 67 minutes on the former President's birthday on July 18.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs will be planting trees across primary schools on the South Coast as part of their contribution to Nelson Mandela Day.
In another effort, AQrate KZN, a company that offers Black Economic Empowerment verification services, will provide work opportunities for a few young graduates.
AQrate KZN's Brigette Brun said the company recognises the difficulties that young graduates experience in trying to secure employment and wants to help a few people to get their careers started.
Last year, the company ran a series of business skills workshops and offered discounts on black economic empowerment verification to businesses with more than 50 percent black shareholding.
Over 500 physically and mentally handicapped people together with elderly citizens from disadvantaged communities will gather in Malvern for a day of entertainment and gifts.
The Gift of the Givers Foundation will bus their guests from all over KwaZulu-Natal and provide them with hygiene packs and blankets, among other essentials.
Melanie Moodley, co-ordinator for the day, said that most of the people chosen to be apart of the Nelson Mandela Day activity endured very difficult lives and often go to sleep without food.
Moodley and her team has also put together a programme that features music and inter cultural dances to add some cheer.
The South African National Blood Services (SANBS) will promote drives in a few areas around the city to create awareness of the importance of blood donations.
People in the vicinity of Reservoir Hills, Phoenix, Liberty Mall (Pietermaritzburg), Chatsworth and Pinetown are urged to visit centres and blood banks to make blood donations.
The South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF), a religious, socio-welfare and educational organisation that assist needy families, has planned a series of activities around the country.
In Durban, they will set up a vegetable tunnel with new crops for the Ekuhlengeni Psychiatric Hospital to be sustained by the rehabilitated inmates.
SANZAF will also provide hot meals to homeless people at the Albert Park. At the Ottawa Informal Settlement, the organisation will engage in a clean up programme as part of their environmental maintenance campaign.
