Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday blamed the apartheid-era policies for the economic inequality in South Africa today.
Delivering the 18th annual Nelson Mandela lecture from New York, he said colonialism created vast inequality within and between countries, including the evils of the transatlantic slave trade and the apartheid regime in South Africa.
PANA reports that it marked the first time the annual address in honour of the world statesman who died in 2013 was delivered virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Guterres said the anti-racism movement that has spread around the world in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder is an indication that people were tired of inequality and discrimination that treats people as criminals on the basis of their skin colour.
“Africa has been a double victim. First, as a target of the colonial project. And African countries are under-represented in the international institutions that were created after the Second World War, before most of them had won independence,” said Guterres.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation's spokesperson Luzuko Koti said this year’s event was dedicated to the memory of Zindzi Mandela, the youngest daughter of Nelson and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who died from COVID-19 this week.
-0- PANA CU/MA 18July2020
