It was fun and games at Emnotweni Casino and Riverside Mall’s “lock-down” of well-known, and popular local personalities recently.
‘The Classic Challenge’, as it was officially named, saw various local personalities raising funds for a variety of old age centers in Nelspruit one week prior to the event as well as on Friday, 27 and Saturday 28 May while they were in actual lock-in at the Riverside Mall in a Survivor camp, asking onlookers for any possible donations.

Some of the participants included Sandra Jacobs (Innibos), Buks Esterhuizen (Lowvelder), Miquel Proenca and Solange Soares (Jacaranda); Werner Bronkhorst from Standard Bank; Werner Terblanche representing J&M security as well as Ig Olivier from Emnotweni Casino and Andrea De Wit representing the Riverside Mall.

“Over R100 000 was raised during this extremely fun and exciting campaign. We are very pleased with the outcome and think this can become an annual fund-raising initiative for many a worthy causes in and around Nelspruit,” comments General Manager at Emnotweni, Ig Olivier.

Hundreds of onlookers arrived to get a closer look at the fundraising activities and thoroughly enjoyed watching the participants who were ‘locked-up’ for the day. They all dressed up and played their parts very well. There were Mama-Jack, the Mafia Boss and even Fred the Basset dog was more than happy to spend time with the funny-looking humans during ‘lockdown’. To keep them busy, each participant was required to make their own begging sign, which they had to hold up in order to urge onlookers to support them with donations. During the evening, they also had to make their own sushi which was sponsored by John Dory’s in the Riverside Mall. “It was great fun! We had such a laugh and the public enjoyed every minute with us.”

After the hard work of raising funds all day long, the participants were allowed to go home but had to check in early the next morning when they were summoned to a go-cart race in the parking area of the Riverside Mall. Sandra Jacobs, one of the directors of the InniBos Arts Festival, took all the men by surprise when she beat them by far!

KPMG was the official auditors and they also announced the final sum raised after the weekend’s activities. “We would also like to take this opportunity to thank various sponsors  including Austin Locksmith who provided the dropsafe used over the two days; Wimpy for serving scrumptious breakfast to our contestants; Coke for quenching the thirsts; Explorers for continuously serving snacks and drinks and Riverside Go Carts for fun entertainment,” comments Olivier.

All the funds raised will be donated to a variety of retirement centres in Nelspruit.

“Our initial aim was to raise at least R50 000 so we were delighted with the final outcome! Emnotweni and the Riverside Mall, would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who so willingly participated and gave up their precious time to help us with this project. Then, of course, thank you to the public who were extremely generous with their donations – the funds will be properly managed and we will ensure that those who are in most need of it will benefit,” says Olivier.