Nelson Mandela Bay

Thousands of Nelson Mandela Bay residents are being uprooted from the communities they grew up in, moved across town and dumped in areas with no schools, clinics, sanitation or public transport.

Enticed by the lure of a government home, more than 2000 shack dwellers have been relocated to Motherwell’s NU29 area during the past 11 years.

Yet despite promises of a better life, not one of them has moved into a proper house yet.

Instead, they have been abandoned and forgotten by the authorities who promised them a better life.

More than 1000 volunteers banded together in Nelson Mandela Bay at the weekend to pick up 17.5 tons of rubbish washed up on the beach from Woody Cape in the east to Maitland River in the west.

Although Motherwell resident and The Herald GM Citizen of the Year award nominee Xolile Raymond Bonakele is by no means a rich man, he wants to share what little he has.

Seen by many as a local hero, he is especially known for his feeding scheme for impoverished schoolchildren in the Nelson Mandela Bay neighbourhood.

Bonakele founded the Ikhaa Labantu feeding scheme in 2003, with the aim of feeding pupils at various schools who would otherwise have to learn on an empty stomach.

Local and foreign students are joining forces in Nelson Mandela Bay to educate high school pupils about HIV/Aids.

Through Aiesec, the largest student-driven body in the world and which runs exchange and internship programmes for profit and non-profit organisations, five Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University students will be working with three Chinese student volunteers to promote Aids awareness at school assemblies.