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Stuff from Johannesburg

Engen retailers support 4 000 Diepsloot families with food hampers

MyPR: Engen retailers support 4 000 Diepsloot families with food hampers:

A group of Gauteng-based Engen fuel retailers have again brought much-needed relief to the Diepsloot community, this time delivering food parcels and other essential items to 4 000 families.

The deliveries took place on 8 May 2020 and was the third mass distribution of food and basics by the Engen retailers from Johannesburg and Tshwane over the past month.

The long-standing relationship between the fuel retailers and the Diepsloot community ensured that families and residents with the greatest needs were carefully identified to ensure that they received relief packages.

Supported by the authorities, the team adhered to strict COVID-19 lockdown safety regulations during the door-to-door deliveries.

“We as Engen fuel retailers are committed to collaborating with and serving our communities. We hope we have brought some relief to the many families who have been severely impacted by the national lockdown,” says Tshepo Magadla, spokesperson for Engen’ s Johannesburg Fuel Retailers CSI committee.

Having now assisted close to 6 000 families with food and basic supplies over the past month, the Engen fuel retailers extended a word of thanks to all involved.

“This was a team effort,” adds Magadla, “and we are grateful for the financial and logistical assistance

we received from Engen Head Office and all our partners including Planact (the NGO which administers all funds), ABC Sweets, KitKat Wholesalers, Alchemy Foods, Maya Security, Diepsloot Secondary School No. 3, Celebration Church in Riverside, Spiritual Chords and all other fuel retailers and stakeholders who helped to make this possible.”

Engen General Manager: Retail, Seelan Naidoo says the company encourages and supports Engen dealers who engage with their local communities, especially during these unprecedented times.

“As a company that cares deeply about the communities in which we operate, and cognizant of the intense hardship brought upon many by COVID-19, we again commend our dealers for their show of community support.”

Engen’s contribution to the fight against COVID-19 includes a number of other investments, including R2.5m fuel and medical testing equipment to the Gift of the Givers for humanitarian relief, and R1 million worth of fuel to the Department of Health for the usage of frontline health workers, to power their emergency response vehicles.

Recently Engen also launched a campaign to support the fight against COVID-19 by educating local communities on safety measures to curb the spread of the virus by branding 35 spaza shops across the country with educational murals to convey important messages on personal safety.

Engen is South Africa’s largest petroleum company, with over 1 000 Engen service stations and various storage facilities spread across the length and breadth of the country.

A spirit of giving back has catapulted Engen to the forefront of the South African consumer’s imagination, explaining the company’s enduring success in surveys like the Sunday Times Top Brands, where it has been voted South Africa’s favourite “Petrol Station” every year from 2011 to 2019 and the Sunday Times Generation Next, where the youth have voted Engen the country’s “Coolest Petroleum Brand” for 10 consecutive years (2010-2019).

These accolades are further endorsed with Engen being recognised as the fastest growing brand in the country by Brand Finance in partnership with Brand South Africa.

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Have you tried: Whale and Dolphin Watching in Algoa Bay?

Did you know this about Johannesburg? City Deep is the world’s largest dry port: Johannesburg the world’s largest city that isn’t located near a coastline or navigable river. City Deep was developed 1977 by South African Railways to accommodate 50% of the city’s cargo (which comes from ports in Cape Town and Durban).

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From Sophiatown to Triomf

By 1963, Sophiatown had been physically razed to the ground. In a final act of psychological warfare, the government built a white working-class suburb over the rubble and named it Triumph (Triomf). They wanted to erase the very memory of Sophiatown from the landscape. For decades, the name Sophiatown disappeared from maps, replaced by the neat, sterile streets of the victors.

The “resurrection” of Sophiatown began officially in 2006, when the City of Johannesburg formally restored the original name to the suburb. Today, the neighborhood is a quiet, leafy residential area, but the ghosts of the “Paris of the Transvaal” are everywhere. The Sophiatown Heritage Centre, housed in the former home of Dr. A.B. Xuma (a former ANC president), is one of the few original buildings that escaped the bulldozers. Walking through the streets today, you can still find small markers of the past: a lone Victorian pillar, a specific tree mentioned in a poem, or the rebuilt St. Joseph’s Church.

The legacy of Sophiatown is not just one of tragedy, but of an indestructible cultural spirit. The music, the slang (Tsotsitaal), and the “Drum” era aesthetic continue to influence South African fashion and film today. It serves as a reminder that while you can bulldoze a house and rename a street, you cannot kill the soul of a place that once danced to the sound of a thousand saxophones.