A number of well-known personalities volunteered their time to man the pledge lines, taking calls from hundreds of supportive locals and businesses throughout the day.

Those who took time out of their busy schedules to support this worthy cause included Deputy Mayor of Durban, Councillor Logie Naidoo; Head: International and Governance Relations, Eric Apelgren, comedians Afzal Khan and Mervyn Pillay, singers Jae and Natalie Rungan, magician Mo Magic, budding Eastern Mosaic presenter Yusuf Moolla; esteemed academic Kiru Naidoo; businessman Triveshan Naidoo, as well as a number of Lotus FM jocks.

Those who dug deep into their pockets on the day included  pledges of R25,000 from Leo Chetty, chairman of Educor, the holding company for Damelin, INTEC and other private colleges.

Chetty said a call from the deputy mayor had encouraged his company to support this worthy initiative, especially because of the campaign’s focus on education, which was close to Educor’s heart.

Pledges of R10,000 each were received from Dinesh Naidoo from Serendipity Tours, a Suren Maniram, a Mr Pillay of Cyber Trade and Niren Ramharakh of GDS Solutions.

Tour operator Naidoo said, “Being a successful businessman and seeing what our forefathers have achieved in terms of education, I thought this was a great opportunity to  give back to the community and support computer literacy for our youngsters.”

Thirty used PCs were also donated by Jay Ramdlall of PC Training while Phaty Chetty of Futel Corp pledged free computer training for the winning schools.