Ward 49 received seven awards at the Mayoral Community Service Awards.
The awards honour community-service work by individuals and groups across the metro.
Voting was open to the public, and nominations could be made from the start of June to Friday June 25.
The event, held virtually on Tuesday June 29, from the Cape Town Civic Centre, was live-streamed to various venues across 24 Sub-councils.
Awards went to The Lions Club Athlone for the “top serving organisation”, Bokmakierie Hazendal Uplifting Developments (BHUD) for the “community hero of the year”, Breaking Barriers Community Outreach for “community business empowerment”, Silvertown Neighbourhood Watch for “safety development and awareness”, the Eoan Group for “talent nurturing and development” and the Akasia Foundation for “social support”. Misqah Kamaldien, of Athlone, received the leadership award.
Councillor Rashid Adams said he was extremely pleased with the seven awards for his ward, as it showed how the organisations worked tirelessly to uplift the community.
“These organisations really make a difference in people’s lives, and hopefully this will inspire other organisations to do the same,” he said.
Director of Breaking Barriers Vivienne Swartz the organisation’s sewing and welding project had been cancelled because of level-4 lockdown.
“When we see a gap to continue classes, we can when the levels are lowered. It has been a challenging year so far, but our plans are to get our skills-development programmes up and running as soon as we can. It’s not something that you can do online – it’s physical teaching. The online job searches continue where people come to use the internet to compile a CV and look for jobs, so that’s still going,” she said.
Shafiek Rajap, director of the Eoan Group, said he was thrilled with the achievement.
“It feels great to get some sort of recognition for work that we do. As a performing arts school it is important for our kids to be recognised and feel special,” he said.
Misqah Kamaldien, from Silvertown, was ecstatic to receive the leadership award. She and her husband, Ghabieb Karoloes, hand out food to the poor from their Blossom Street home every Friday.
“We are so happy to receive the award. We are in need of bigger pots to cook more food and another stove and gas tank. We have a passion for helping the community, as many people don’t have food because of Covid. They lost their jobs, so we want to help. We know how it feels not to have,” she said.
Greg Wagner, spokesman mayor Dan Plato, said the City annually recognised residents through its Neighbourhood Watch Awards, and this year it was decided to expand the ceremony to recognise all community service.
Mr Wagner said individuals working for the good of their communities were heroes.
“Their involvement is crucial in helping to ensure greater community participation and working towards unity and progress.”
