Botswana Receives Jack Ma Consignment To Fight COVID-19
Thalefang Charles | Monday March 30, 2020 19:28
On Wednesday night the assistant minister of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Dumezweni Mthimkhulu and other senior government officials received Botswana’s consignment from Chinese billionaire Jack Ma at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport.
Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing 737 has been busy traversing every African country to deliver the generous gifts from the Alibaba mogul to help fight the coronavirus. It is a total of 1.1 million testing kits, a million masks and 60,000 protective gear.
In a statement published last week Ma said his foundations further pledged “to assist Africa by immediately starting work with medical institutions in the continent to provide online training material for COVID-19 clinical treatment”. Ma, who is Forbes number 21 in the Billionaire 19 list and number one in China’s rich list, urged everyone to unite against coronavirus.
“Now it is as if we were all living in the same forest on fire. As members of the global community, it would be irresponsible for us to sit on the fence, panic, ignore facts or fail to act. We need to take action now!” said the Alibaba magnate.
Ethiopian Airlines has pledged to lead the logistics and distribution of donations to all African states.
Director of Health Services, Dr Malaki Tshipiyagae said the donations come at the perfect time when the need for a healthy stockpile will be crucial in the fight against coronavirus.
Mthimkhulu thanked the Alibaba Foundation for their generous gift.