Pretoria- The Northern Cape Transport, Safety and Liason department will tomorrow distribute school shoes to two primary schools as part of its Mandela Day initiative.
“The Department of Transport, Safety and Liaison will tomorrow distribute school shoes as part of our Mandela Day initiative to learners of two rural schools who walk a long distance to school,” said the department’s Keitumetse Moticoe on Sunday.
The Boplaas Primary School located just outside Upington will receive 35 pairs of school shoes while the Elandsvlei Primary School outside Calvinia will receive 30 pairs of school shoes.
“Following assessments done by our department on the needs for transportation in communities, we found, particularly in most rural and disadvantaged areas, that learners, walk to school for long distances. In many of the cases the learners had never owned a pair of school shoes,” said the department.
Our department’s initiative is also encouraged by the fact that walking is regarded as a mode of transport as transportation is part of our department’s mandate.
This year’s school shoes distribution at the two schools will also form part of a distribution of full school uniform and school shoes to be distributed in Fraserburg.
The month of July has become over the years known as Mandela Month, and July 18—former President Nelson Mandela’s birthday-- has been internationally declared as Mandela Day.
On Mandela Day, people are called on to devote 67 minutes of their time to change the world for the better, in a small gesture of solidarity with humanity, and in a small step towards a continuous, global movement for good. – SAnews.gov.za
