Chris Marais writes on the Cradock Facebook page:
There are around 200 shops, tiny to large, that are owned by foreign nationals in Cradock. Moved by the plight of hungry people around them because of the Coronavirus pandemic, they decided to collect money and use their buying power to purchase goods for food parcels.
Within a week, they raised R53 000.
According to the organisers, Sohel Reza and Sheikh Diop, the traders come mostly from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Nigeria, China and Pakistan. On 1 May they offloaded a large consignment of bread flour, sugar, tea, rice, yeast, baked beans, cooking oils, soy mince and washing powder, bought from Adami’s Powersave and E-lollipop, at Vusubuntu Centre in the Cradock township of Lingelihle.
Inxuba Yethemba Municipality ward councillor Lena Davids and Council chief whip Maria Nortje thanked the traders on behalf of the Joint Operations Committee. The goods will be added to donations by Tam’s SuperSpar, local dairy farmers and others, divided into parcels and donated to the needy.
Vusubuntu Centre outside Cradock’s Lingelihle township has become a distribution point for donations from foreign traders, dairy farmers, and Tam’s. All these goods will be put together in parcels by the Joint Operations Committee and distributed to the neediest via ward councillors.
Donations from Tam’s SuperSpar.
These are some of Cradock’s foreign traders, coming from countries like Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Senegal, Ghana, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.
Unloading bakkies full of food for those who have been left destitute by the COVID-19 pandemic in Cradock.
- Photos: Chris Marais @Karoo Space