​MEC for Finance Mr Jacob Mamabolo today called on the private sector and civil society to do more social corporate responsibly work in townships, saying this will assist in expanding development in local communities.

"Corporate entities must invest in communities, make positive contributions and look at townships as long-term investment," said MEC Mamabolo.

The MEC was speaking during the hand-over ceremony of two edutainers to the Tshepo Hope Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre in Tsakane (Brakpan) as part of activities to end Mandela Month. These Edutainers were donated to the ECD by Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (the Provincial Banker) in partnership with the Gauteng Provincial Treasury.

"Each one of us, whether in the private sector, or civil society organisations have a responsibility to lay one brick at a time in building our country and improving our communities. There is nothing wrong with a collaborative approach, let us form partnerships and take on more social responsibility work to improve the lives of our people," MEC Mamabolo stated.

Ms. Phumelela Tlopatla, speaking on behalf of the Gauteng Department of Education, praised the donations, saying; "We welcome what Standard Bank of South Africa Limited has done, the edutainers will help us deal with one area that we have challenges with in ECD's, which is infrastructure."

The Gauteng Department of Education conducted a survey on the state of ECD's in the province. "The survey has identified three areas that we need to look into: non- access to funding, primarily due to ECD registration in accordance with the Children's Act, poor quality of reading at an early age, and poor ECD infrastructure," she said.

"As Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, today is quite special, motivational and for us ECD's are the most important area to get right. If you do not have a foundation, you do not have a house hence our primary focus is on early childhood development", said Dr Kirston Greenop.

Other items that were donated to the centre include; a service container that can be used as an office, sick bay for the learners, and there's also a kitchen attached to the container with a fridge, built in cabinet and gas stove. Three new ablution facilities, a 5000L JoJo tank, and other educational material.

The handover ceremony was a success and concluded the Nelson Mandela month on a positive note for the community. Other activities of the day included repairing of leaks on the ridge of the roof, painting of the roof, erecting dry wall, making shelving units, painting, hanging of new curtains, gardening, and cleaning the yard.

Bishop Charles May from the All Souls Anglican Church of South Africa, one of the partners of the ECD encouraged the community members to look after the facility. "Children are the best teachers in the world, this belongs to the community, the community must take pride and protect the facility for future generations", he said.

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