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MPUMALANGA ARTISTS TO HELP EMASWATI WITH FOOD

08/07/2021 08:21:00 BY MMELI MKWANAZI

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MBABANE – South African entertainers have joined forces to help the people of Eswatini.

In rallying behind the current political atmosphere in the country, musicians, actors, radio personalities, comedians and TV presenters from one of the nine provinces in Mpumalanga have been collecting donations to help with the food shortages. The campaign is called ‘1 Voice 4 Eswatini’. It was started by musician Afrotraction and the campaign ambassadors are Rise FM presenter Kedebone Mkhabela and DJ Zoe Matsebula. It is worth noting that the neighboring artists’ campaign is not politically affiliated but was initiated by the fact that they wanted to assist those in need of food.

The project manager is Ayanda Dlamini who said although the campaign only started on July 3, 2021; it had already collected 12 000 boxes of food. According to Daily Sun, Afrotraction mentioned that Mpumalanga was closely connected to Eswatini and they could not fold hands and be quiet since a lot of South Africans had family and friends in the Kingdom. “Mpumalanga is closely connected to Eswatini and these horrible things hit home. A lot of South Africans have family and friends in Eswatini, so we couldn’t be quiet,” he said. The artist further said the campaign’s aim was to alleviate poverty, loss of income and food shortages in the country.

On Monday, there was a live prayer session hosted by Afrotraction on Instagram as the entertainers were praying for the country. Special entertainment guests included Rebecca Malope, Somizi Mhlongo, Keke, Sipho Makhabane, Mnqobi Nxumalo, Wandile Nkambule, Benjamin Dube, Takie Ndou, Mabongifero, Temkosi Manqele and Zaza. On the other hand, Kedebone said she wanted to help others since the country was among the poor countries and the current political unrest made things worse and this then purported them to do something for the affected people. The project manager, Dlamini added that they were proud of what they had achieved so far.

“As soon as we heard what was happening, we started the organisation and quickly registered it so we could help. We challenge other entertainers to join us to make things bigger,” she asserted. However, Dlamini said they were having difficulty with regards to sending the food parcels to the country but were planning on driving to the border to see whether they could work something out and hoped that they would be able to send the food parcels by the end of the week. Local hip-hop entertainer cum philanthropist who has a Foundation (Illa Penboy Foundation) that helps emaSwati confirmed with this publication that he had been contacted by DJ Zoe Matsebula regarding the food parcels.

“I can confirm that they have contacted me but we are still in talks and nothing has been finalized yet. From our database, we have noticed that a lot of food shortage has been experienced countrywide particularly in Nhlangano,” he said.
Mzwandile Moya known by his stage name as Afrotraction is a South African R&B and neo soul musician and producer. Moya comes from a musical family and his love for music was triggered at an early age.