p 2 11 July 2014, PLATINUM WEEKLY, 11 Marais Street, Tel: 014 592 9686, Fax: 011 252 6669, E-mail: news@platinumweekly.co.za

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Rustenburg – We were all just living our lives, doing what we’re used to, working, providing for our families, paying bills, bonds and vehicle instalments. Some of us were from living month to month, not know-ing or realizing that tomorrow we may not have an income. And then the Platinum City was brought to its knees by the AMCU strike. Thousands of mine workers were instructed to take un-paid leave while others lost their jobs, their homes, their vehicles and their pride…You can tell who your real friends are in times of need, when things are not going the way you planned. Your friends are the people who do not desert you; but stand by you, support you, pray for you. Rustenburg found out who their friends were and even acquired many new friends in these hard times – and for that we are so thankful. StaanSaam Rustenburg and StaanSaam Rustenburg Community Watch (Naomi Pasino; 083 444 6391). Nao-mi Pasino and her team of angels reached out to the community in need and treated everyone they assisted with dignity. Since the beginning of the strike, StaanSaam Rustenburg went above and beyond the call of duty in supplying food and clothes to families affected by the strike.None of this would have been possible without the multitude of donations stream-ing in from all over South-Africa and even abroad, for which they are very apprecia-tive. In one of these cases, two business-men from Boksburg read the letter Chris-

tine wrote to her aunt, relating the impact of the strike she experienced at a local church where food was handed out to fami-lies. These anony-mous businessmen believed they had the means and the support of family and friends to make a tangible differ-ence to the lives of some of the strike-affected families. They personally delivered their do-nation of food to the StaanSaam Depot.Leon Mostert earlier heard the Good Morn-ing Angles show on Jaca-randa discussing the plight of strike-hit Rustenburg resi-dents, and decided to make a differ-ence. He got the word out and be-fore long donations for the StaanSaam Rustenburg “kos-kas” were pouring in. Leon represents a company in the Alberton/ Meyerton area wishing to re-main anonymous, but their caring

kindness will go a long way in feeding the many hungry families in Rustenburg. When Leon arrived at StaanSaam Rustenburg’s “Koskas”, there were not nearly enough hands to off-load the precious cargo. Even though the strike is over, many Rustenburg residents still need a helping hand to get back on their feet, and Geel-hout Spar did exactly that by graciously donating food and other necessities to Sta-anSaam Rustenburg and the StaanSaam Baby Project.Naomi Pasino expressed her heartfelt gratitude to all for their generous donations without which this project would not have been so successful. Many families in the community will need assistance until they are self-sufficient again, and donations are still very welcome and appreciated. Sta-anSaam Rustenburg and the Rustenburg Community Watch salute you! Solidarity Helping Hand (072 480 4904 or marine@helpendehand.co.za) was a ray of light when all hope was lost and brought relief to thousands of households and the Rustenburg Primary Schools feeding schemes.During a food distribution action in Mooi-nooi, Solidarity Helping Hand assisted non-striking mineworkers to update their CVs and upload them to the organisation’s jobs portal as part of their action plan of long-term assistance, from which hundreds of people benefitted. Dr Danie Brink, Executive Director of Help-ing Hand, said in this regard, “Although Helping Hand continues to distribute basic necessities in the platinum belt; we also want to give non-striking workers the kind of support that will have a long-term im-pact”.Helping Hand has already deposited R100 000 in its Disaster Area Bursary Fund for bursaries to the children of non-striking workers who want to study at tertiary in-stitutions in 2015. Financial and other as-sistance are offered to enable non-striking workers to receive training in other fields, thereby making them more employable and free psychometric tests are offered for their school-going children. Helping Hand will also facilitate negotiations with banks regarding overdue debt.“Helping Hand will carry out thorough re-search on an on-going basis to determine what needs continue to exist after the strike in order to ensure that the long-term effect of the strike is neutralised as quickly as possible,” Brink said.Vision of Hope Foundation (Zelda Massyn at 0741293458 or pkotze005@gmail.com) is an organi-sation that has been taking care of Rusten-burg’s unprivileged children and some families even from before the AMCU strike started in January. They simply upped their game and are now taking care of even more children and families affected by the strike.Seeing the Vision of Hope Foundation at work is a humbling experience and the Platinum Weekly accompanied them to Dawid Brink Primary School, one of their many projects where they feed just over 80 children every week. Please visit their website: www.visionofhopefoundation.com or Facebook page Vision of Hope Foundation; AMPED Rustenburg.

Aramex (014 596 7775 or www.aramex.co.za) in conjunction with Feed a Child (012 771 7719 or http://www.feedachild.co.za) put smiles on the faces of more than 220 children from Da-wid Brink Primary School in Rustenburg who received breakfast porridge.This was made possible through a dona-tion from well-known artist, Jean Grove, who selected the school as beneficiary because its learners and their parents are among the worst affected by the strike. The children also received mini-vegeta-ble gardens in the form of cold drink bot-tles containing seedlings to be planted in

bigger pots or their gardens at home. Running for years now, the G-Om/Wee-care Project (Linda Grobler at 083 292 5654 or Lourisa Venter at 082 806 4352 or lourisa.venter@gmail.com) has been taking care of needy children from all ar-eas, races and denominations in town, and since 2001 also takes in pre-schoolers. The project operates from the NG Church hall in Rustenburg South and receives no financial support from the state, Lotto or in-ternational organizations. The Jacaranda Complimentary Breakfast team (Good Morning Angles) broadcast live from the Water-fall Mall in Rustenburg. The show, which is renowned for its witty comments from presenters Rian van Heerden and Dianne Broodryk, took on a serious undertone as the entire show was dedicated to the plight of the needy families’ children touched by strike action in Rustenburg. The Jakaranda team raised national awareness and gen-erated much needed donations towards relief for feeding schemes and NGO’s, distributed through the Rotary Club of Rustenburg (Gaylen Coelho at 082 780 1052) to local schools in and around Rustenburg. These donations included • Waterfall Mall - R10,000 worth of

vouchers;• Sunbake - R10,000 donation for

food, 500 loaves of bread;• Meat World Rustenburg - 250kgs

mince meat;• The Dischem Foundation (Wa-

terfall Value Mart Dischem) - R50,000 donation for food; and

• Rustenburg Travel - R2,000 dona-tion for food.

Listening to the plight of callers, visitors and members of the community, the Good Morning Angels crew surprised everyone by donating R20,000 to Solidarity’s Help-ing Hand and another R20,000 to the Sta-anSaam Rustenburg’s ‘Koskas’.Kurt Darren (Celia at; 082 359 5981 or celia@smashingpromotions.co.za) opened his heart to the Rustenburg Com-munity and performed at Agapè. Entry fees consisted of food or donations for the families affected by the strike, and yielded a generous intake for which Rustenburg is grateful.On Saturday, 21 June, Kleine Khomas (Zenta at 076 639 1222 or kleinekhomas@gmail.com) hosted a ‘Blikkies Musiekfees’ featuring Henk de Kat, Anton Myburg, Manie Jackson, Thys die Bosveldklong, Albert de Wet, Divann Dee, Mari Minnaar and Gibbon. Tinned food was collected from those in atten-dance and donated to affected households.

The congregation of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk (S. Lange at 082 449 1622 or kantoor@jacvanbelkum.co.za) appealed to residents to assist in food schemes run by schools where identified children receive two meals a day, very of-ten the only food available at present.Between 70 and 100 destitute families per school who would have been left with no food at all during the school break, com-pelled Jac van Belkum to ask for donations of non-perishable food or cash for grocer-ies in aid of these families. Volunteers assisted to pack the baskets at the church grounds which were handed out at the schools just in time for the winter break.The Round Table Winter Knights (031 202 8401 or lee@flagship.co.za) geared up to fight the battle against the cold and bring the joy of warmth to thousands who face the icy cold temperatures of the winter months. This non-profit organisation comprises of young men who give up their free time and apply their own resources to serve their community. They call for public support in helping the destitute and less fortunate

members of Rustenburg through the win-ter.Price ‘n Pride and Barnetts Furni-ture Stores (Rustenburg and Boi-tekong Mall) donated 67 food parcels and blankets to grateful miners in Boi-tekong.On Tuesday, 1 July, Scribante Rusten-burg (082 908 5130) donated R50 000 to the Rustenburg Child Welfare (014 537 2014) whose staff was over-joyed by the gesture which will go a long way in supporting the work they do. Driven by their urge to support the commu-nity as the community supported them, the team from Three Star Cash &Carry partnered with their suppliers in the retail business to host a charity golf day at the Rustenburg Golf Club and were able to raise over R150 000 in this single event. All proceeds will go to charity organisa-tions operating in the greater Rustenburg area such as Grace Outreach (R15 000), Huis Sering (R12 000), Môrester Children’s Home (R30 000), Rustenburg Diocese (R15 000), SAVF (R15 000), SOS Chil-dren’s Home (R15 000), Spes Bona (R12 000), Teen Challenge (R6000), Haven (R6000) and Touch Community Network (R25 000). Jaime Knoessen, assistant buy-er at Three Star Cash & Carry, said they were extremely grateful to their suppliers who helped them to help the less fortunate.A number of Gauteng businesses donated a staggering amount of food to the Rusten-burg community. Midvaal Structures, Midvaal Industrial Supplies and Verncor Valve & Automation de-cided to aid 90 Rustenburg families and under the umbrella of Project Hunger; delivered their first major donation to Da-wid Brink Primary School for distribution to needy households. Louwre fromVerncor Valve & Automation and Riaan from Mid-vaal teamed up to transport the food from Johannesburg. Advit thought of the multitude of families who could not provide for their pets while unable to feed their own families and do-nated food to the Rustenburg SPCA to assist.Prayer Warriors (Danie du Plooy at 082 455 4960) heads a group of determined people who gather on Prayer Mountain at 6:30 every Saturday to pray over Rustenburg and its residents. While so many of us worry about our tomorrows, these people pray and believe that all will work out for good, and that God can turn any mess into a message, every test into a testimony.

Without all the donations and assistance from all over the country, Rustenburg could very well have turned into a ghost town. But once again the community pulled to-gether and functioned as a unit in desper-ate circumstances. People cleaned out their garages and of-fered their caravans to house others who had lost their homes. Some families slept in their cars, and yet not one report was received of harm done to any of those people.The editorial staff of the Platinum Weekly would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude towards all who assisted in some way or other in making these past five months, as well as the weeks of recuperating and ad-justing to come, a milestone in the Platinum City’s history of caring and compassion. We know of similar drives still scheduled and thank those responsible in advance for coming to the aid of our town and our people. To all those not mentioned in the list of thank-you’s above, we also solute you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! While we know that the strike brought Rustenburg’s proud residents to their knees, we also know that in times of des-perate need that is exactly where one should be; on your knees, closer to your Maker, your Father; closer to God.

With heartfelt gratitude