KARIEGA – The Power Towers Food Drive, a national competition run every November, recently took shape in front of SuperSpar Despatch, marking its fifth edition since its inception in 2020.
The Eastern Cape emerged victorious once again, raising a record-breaking 19.6 tonnes of food and beating the national record for the highest amount collected since the competition began.
According to spokesperson Christie-Leigh Gouws, Mrs Eastern Cape 2023, the Power Towers competition is an initiative of the Role Models Foundation NPO.
The competition is designed to get each province to raise as much food as possible in tonnes, with provinces competing against each other to see who can collect the most food to feed the nation.
“We nominated three NPOs in the Eastern Cape to be the beneficiaries of the food: namely the Starfish Place of Safety, a homeless shelter; Walmer Angel Project, an NPO feeding the Airport Valley in Walmer Township who have been beneficiaries since 2021; Lake Farm Centre; and small homeless shelters in Gqeberha,” said Gouws.
The Eastern Cape team was led by Suzanne Wylde, the new Mrs Mzantsi Africa 2025/2026 and previously Mrs Port Elizabeth 2021/2022. Wylde has served as the National Coordinator for the Eastern Cape Power Towers since 2021.
She was supported by Christie-Leigh Gouws from Kariega, who has been assisting with the initiative since 2023 and continues to give back to the community.
Despite the challenges of securing donations at year-end when most charity budgets have been exhausted, the team managed to gather substantial support from various sponsors.
Paul Barnes from Despatch SuperSpar emerged as a significant contributor, donating tonnes of food annually since 2021, paying for team shirts, and providing unwavering support to the initiative.
“We have amazing sponsors, some don’t want to be named, but they have supported me since 2021,” said Wylde.
“We also had local title holders get sponsors from private companies. I also had 4.9 tonnes of food donated by my clients alone.”
Transport company Transport 2000 has also been a consistent sponsor since 2021, handling the collection, storage, and delivery of donated food to the venue, then redistributing it amongst the designated charities.
All nine provinces participated in the competition, with the winner determined by the total tonnage of food collected.
The Eastern Cape’s victory with 19.6 tonnes marks their fourth win in the competition’s five-year history, having previously won in 2021, 2023, 2024, and now 2025.
“We are all absolutely so proud of ourselves, we worked so hard and we deserve this win and so do the hungry mouths that we will be feeding. Thousands of people will be fed with this food,” said the team.
Since 2021, Wylde and her Eastern Cape team have raised a total of 78 tonnes of food for the Gqeberha, Despatch, and Kariega communities, demonstrating their consistent commitment to addressing food insecurity in the region.
The collected food will be distributed amongst several local organisations.
Gouws expressed gratitude to her support system, stating: “I just want to say thank you to my mother Heidi Alberts and grandmother Juby Vermaak for always being by my side. To my husband, Monré Gouws, thank you for supporting me, and also to my two sons, Gabriel and Mason Gouws, who, with their cousin Silas Morris, worked so hard to help the team. They are three boys with big hearts for the community.”
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