This year's Mandela Day celebrations were welcomed with much high spirits. On Thursday, 18th July 2019, Finance and e-Government MEC Ms Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko along with GPT employees, commemorated the day by cleaning, hosting a fitness session and lunch with the elderly at Phomolong Centre for the aged in Tembisa in Ekurhuleni.
While in an interview on the community radio station, Voice of Tembisa, MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko added, "Our Mandela Day is a marathon. We have dedicated the next 3 days strictly to uTata. Today we are showering (showered) the elderly with love. We have heard their cries and we will attend to their needs."
Following that, on 19th July 2019, in partnership with Altron the MEC launched an ICT Training Program for 200 beneficiaries in Merafong in the West Rand and then in Hammanskraal in Tshwane the following day.
This is a three-month program targeted at young people who will be trained in coding, networking and basic computer skills and will thereafter be considered for internships, learnerships and employment within the Gauteng Broadband Network and other projects.
MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko said, "As a department, we want to honour Tata Mandela in style, by empowering the young people he believed in. We want to give you something that no one can take away, skill."