Minister says South Africans have failed Mandela
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – South Africa's Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has encouraged citzens to “find the Mandela” in them and to embrace forgiveness and equality.
Delivering the Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture at Freedom Park Heritage Site and Museum in Pretoria on Wednesday, he said: “I am the product of the kindness of strangers and I am what I am because there was a man who lived called Nelson Mandela.”
Noting the unequal treatment of black, coloured, and Indian people, he encouraged citizens to find Mandela in themselves because “we have failed Nelson Mandela”.
Wednesday’s event formed part of the International Mandela Day activities that were hosted around the world in July to commemorate the world statesman’s birthday.
The discussions were held under the theme: “30 years of democracy in South Africa, Unthreading the genesis of government of national unity”.
The purpose of the event was to allow peple to make a deep reflection on the contribution of Mandela to the South African democratic dispensation and to further unthread his ideas on the formation of the first Government of National Unity. The discussion also addressed how the Nobel Laureate used his GNU in 1994 as a vehicle to unite people of South Africa across ideological differences and cultural background.
For the first time since the Mandela administration, South Africa has another GNU following the May national elections which saw no outright winner.
-0- PANA CU/MA 1Aug2024
