Alleluia Ministries International Church leader , Prophet Alph Lukau, has donated 1000 food parcels to Soweto residents to help them survive the lockdown poverty.
The food parcels , which were branded with the church’s name, were delivered on Saturday morning in Orlando West.
But this generous gesture came a few days after Lukau and other leaders of his church, including trucks carrying food hampers , were forced to make a U- turn on the highway after learning that community members stormed the Orlando West community centre where the food parcels were supposed to be handed over to them.
But despite the incident, Lukau and his entourage were not deterred as they returned to the township and handed over the food parcels to community leaders, who would distribute them to deserving beneficiaries living in Mzansi’s biggest township.
Lukau ’s spokeswoman Busisiwe Gaca said the donation is part of their campaign to help poor residents in various townships of Gauteng who are starving because of the lockdown. She said Lukau’ has already donated 1000 and 500 food parcels in Tembisa and Alexandra respectively.
Gaca confirmed that they postponed the Wednesday food parcels handover event because hungry residents stormed the centre after information was leaked to them that Lukau was coming to donate the food parcels.
“We had to turn back because we could not endanger the lives of our people and expose them to possible coronavirus infections. We decided to inform community leaders to postpone the event to a further date to ensure that all lockdown regulations were adhered to,” she said.
Community leader Vuyiswa Gumede, who accepted the food parcels on behalf of Soweto residents, said the community was grateful for the church and Lukau’s efforts in helping people to fight poverty during the lockdown. She also said she was going to ensure that the hampers would be delivered to the deserving beneficiaries.
Gumede the food parcels would be donated to residents of Meadowlands, Mzimhlophe, Dube, Westcliff and Rockville Emdeni, Tladi and Naledi, Dobsonville and Diepkloof .
One of the beneficiaries, Philiswa Majola from Orlando, said the food parcels donated by the church would go a long way to ensure that they don’t go hungry during lockdown.
“We know that government alone cannot cover everyone. We are thankful to Prophet Lukau for remembering us the less fortunate. We hope that he will continue to do so in other areas too,” she said.
