22 Aug 2018

Donations continue to pour in for the quadruplets born of Tonota woman and one of the donors is South Africa’s music maestro Winnie Mashaba, who contributed sanitary pads, towels and wipes.

The award winning gospel star also visited the family of the 34-year-old mother, Pego Race where she had time to mingle with volunteers, help mix cement and gave a word of encouragement to the workers on site, who volunteered to construct a two bed roomed house for the mother, who now has 10 children, six girls and four boys.

Accompanied by the area MP, Mr Thapelo Olopeng, Ms Mashaba thanked residents for their compassionate and loving spirit towards their fellow home girl, saying she hoped that many people would come forward to assist in any manner they could.

She explained that what the community of Tonota had done showed signs of a compassionate, just and caring nation and appealed to them to continue with the spirit of giving to others.

Ms Mashaba explained that the quadruplets needed everyone’s support as the future leaders of this country.

She said she was delighted in the manner in which the Tonota community had come and join hands together for a common purpose.

In an interview, Mr Olopeng who is also Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development said upon hearing the news, he mobilised people, be it political leaders, the business community and individuals to come together and give a helping hand and the response was overwhelming.

He said the first to respond positively were area councillors and material suppliers who provided building materials such as bricks and cement while Thapelo Olopeng Foundation supplied bricks.

Asked how Ms Mashaba came to know about the project to build Ms Race a house, Mr Olopeng explained that she (Mashaba) learnt about the project from social media in which he (Olopeng) was appealing to everyone to assist in the project .

He explained that initially he had had a conversation with Mashaba, who had wanted to donate some sanitary pads to his constituency before the birth of the quadruplets.

Mr Olopeng further stated that Ms Race would also benefit from the donation as she would receive some sanitary pads saying other sanitary pads would be donated to the less privileged children of Mabesekwa Primary School.

Mr Olopeng appealed to the people of Tonota to continue with their generosity and donate more to the family, saying furnishing the house would also be their responsibility.

Meanwhile, the mother to Pego, Ms Ledoba Race could not hide her excitement towards the support that the family got from the community of Tonota.

She said they only had a mud house which accommodated 15 members of the family, five children, Ms Pego’s six children, Ms Pego herself and two grandchildren.

The construction of the house is the initiative of Mr Olopeng, who earlier on upon hearing about the news had visited the yard and found that there was only one mud house which was not adequate to accommodate the whole family.

Mr Olopeng also paid for the connection of a water standpipe and appealed to people to give a helping hand of any kind to Ms Race. ENDS