Continental Tyre SA has boosted the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber’s Ubuntu Covid-19 Fund by contributing a whopping R250,000 to equip local healthcare facilities with essential equipment to help combat the pandemic. 

Established in April, the Ubuntu fund provides support in the form of personal protective equipment (PPE); has paid for renovations to several wards at the Livingstone, Provincial and Dora Nginza hospitals; and has enabled an increase in the number of beds for Covid-19 patients.

The fund also donated sanitisers and masks to schools and community organisations such as old-age homes.

Continental’s contribution was used to procure 33,000 gowns, masks and sets of gloves for public hospitals and clinics in the Port Elizabeth area.

The tyre maker also donated 100 blankets through the business chamber to the Newton Park Methodist Church for distribution to homeless people in the city.

“Nelson Mandela Bay has been one of South Africa’s hardest-hit areas in terms of Covid-19 infections, with our public healthcare sector requiring support from the private sector to ensure it is better equipped to handle this crisis,” JJ Dowling, Continental Tyre SA’s GM for manufacturing says.

“As one of Port Elizabeth’s key employers with a proud history spanning 73 years, it’s important that we do our part to support public healthcare facilities by helping to save lives and protect medical personnel that are at the frontline of this pandemic.” 

Chamber CEO Nomkhita Mona estimates the collective organised business contribution to fight the virus in the city is more than R135m, which includes a field hospital funded by VWSA with overseas support.

To donate to the Ubuntu Covid-19 Fund, contact the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber at joc@nmbbusinesschamber.co.za