MTN employees to fly Mandela Day flag in Africa, Middle East

MTN employees will today join multitudes of people and organisations around the world to observe Mandela Day, in celebration of Nelson Mandela's 94th birthday.

They will mark the day by doing good for humanity in tribute to an icon whose fight for freedom and contribution to the ushering in of democracy in South Africa inspired the birth of MTN, now a global African brand that is using the empowering force of mobile telephony to transform people's lives.

MTN employees will use Mandela Day to celebrate the achievements they made during 21 Days of Y'ello Care, an annual MTN staff volunteer programme that takes places from 1 to 21 June.

This year's programme focused on education, and saw thousands of employees across MTN's vast geographic footprint in Africa and the Middle East undertake activities to improve the quality of education and schooling infrastructure. They refurbished classrooms and libraries, provided computer centres, technical training, bursaries, career guidance, and books and school lessons on a variety of subjects.

In an inspirational message to more than 24 252 employees on the eve of Mandela Day, MTN Group President and CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa, paid tribute to MTN volunteers for acting out their selfless deeds in keeping with Mandela's legacy of doing good for humanity.

“For us at MTN, every day is a Mandela Day. As a corporate organisation and as a people, we live by Mandela's example through what our employees do for their communities, as well as through the work of MTN Foundations, which help us to effectively balance our commercial imperatives and the social needs of the communities in which we do business.

“Thanks to your efforts, we will observe Mandela Day by celebrating the achievements we made during the 2012 edition of 21 Days of Y'ello Care - now in its sixth year and still growing in terms of its beneficiary reach and staff participation,” said Dabengwa.

“In true Mandela style,” Dabengwa said, “you sacrificed your time and invested your energies in commendable efforts of 'service to one's fellow human' in an all-out endeavour to improve access to, and the quality of, education for our communities. In an era where governments are experiencing financial constraints in addressing a myriad of education challenges, you did not fold your arms while school infrastructure deteriorated and learners travelled long distances to school - some without books.

“Instead, you competently rose to the challenge by refurbishing classrooms and libraries, providing computer centres, technical training, bursaries, career guidance, books and school lessons on a variety of subjects. Indeed, you have given our children a rare opportunity to one day become economically active global citizens,” he said.

To continue where it left off in June, MTN Zambia has identified a Mandela Day activity at the University Teaching Hospital, Zambia's largest hospital, to prepare meals for out-of-town patients visiting the hospital. MTNers in Sudan will partner with the South African Embassy, in Khartoum, to rehabilitate one of the ancient schools in the city, alongside other embassies in the country.

In South Africa, employees will prepare lunch meals for learners at Qoqizizwe Primary School, in Orange Farm, Johannesburg. They will also donate two water tanks, with a capacity of 500 litres each, to address water shortages at the school. MTN staff will also visit Zandspruit Primary School, in Honeydew, also in Johannesburg, to hand over bicycles and build a jungle gym for learners.

In West Africa, MTN Guinea Bissau will rename a scholarship programme for 100 high school learners, launched during 21 Days of Y'ello Care, to the “Nelson Mandela Scholarship”, in honour of Madiba.

To pay homage to Madiba, MTN will be presenting him with a book featuring pledges to serve humanity from its customers and MTN staff sent via www.mtn.com. The book will also showcase some of the highlights, in words and pictures, of the activities MTN employees undertook during the 21 Days of Y'ello Care programme in 2012.

Issued by MTN Group Corporate Affairs.