- Two Groenvlei High School learners, Tyler Olifant and Mnandisi Mpathi, have received the Mayor’s Civic Pride awards for their efforts in collecting care items for learners affected by floods.
- The initiative is part of Mayor Hill-Lewis’s plan to inspire civic pride through community service.
- The awards include a trophy and a R2 000 cash prize for their contributions.
Two Groenvlei High School learners have received the Mayor’s Civic Pride awards for their contributions to upliftment and civic duty.
The brain child of Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, these awards began with promoting cleaning up of the city.
The learners, who are both on the Representative Council of Learners (RCL), Tyler Olifant in Grade 11 and Mnandisi Mpathi in Grade 10, received the awards earlier this month for their collection drive of care items for learners impacted by the floods and inclement weather.
Winners are young people who have displayed outstanding projects that inspire and build a city of hope. Winners across the City receive a trophy and R2 000 in cash.
Schools had to submit applications by Wednesday 1 May, with awards announced from the first clean-up event held in September, continuing throughout October.
In an interview with People’s Post, Hill-Lewis says the initiative is important.
“This is an idea that I came up with and I’ve pushed it through to implementation now. We are trying to inspire pride in our city, in our communities and it has to start with young people,” he says.
“Unfortunately, on the negative side, in South Africa we have an incredible disrespect of public places and public infrastructure. This is our country, it’s our city, it’s our community. Let’s look after it together and let’s show pride in it.”
While the programme started with awarding young people participating in clean-ups, the awards have expanded.
“I love those kinds of people and I want to celebrate those kinds of people where they are already doing things and inspire others to do that as well.
“One of the ways I thought of doing that is to find some of the people doing really amazing inspirational stuff and just celebrate them. That’s how the Mayor’s Civic Pride Awards was born,” he says.
“It has expanded hugely. It is not just clean-ups, people doing after-school programmes, looking after kids, helping kids study maths, looking after the elderly, you name it. There is so much that people are doing out there and young people that we have a lot to be excited about in our future.”
