News
Foundation remembers Martin Luther King Jr
April 7, 2008 – When US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated on 4 April 1968, Nelson Mandela was ending the third year of his life sentence for sabotage.
King’s shooting on the balcony in a hotel in Memphis Tennessee at the age of 39, sent shock waves around the world. To the news deprived political prisoners on Robben Island, the information had to come more slowly, through the network of common law prisoners.
My Way Foundation honours Nelson Mandela
April 1, 2008 - In the town of Hagenbrunn, Austria, an outdoor artwork a kilometre long is open, 24 hours a day, for people to visit. Its purpose is to encourage them to reflect on their way in life.
In Conversation With Ali Mazrui
March 30, 2008 – In the second of our “In Conversation With” series to commemorate Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, Ali Mazrui talks with Tara Turkington about racial and religious intolerance, and current-day politics in the United States, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Foundation publishes human rights dialogue booklet
March 27, 2008 – The Nelson Mandela Foundation has just published a booklet recording the Human Rights Lecture and Roundtable Discussion held in conjunction with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) on December 10, 2007.
Commemorating Human Rights Day, 2008
March 21, 2008 – “… it is important that the legal system itself be made affordable, accessible and efficient. The most elegantly drafted Human Rights are worth nothing if only the wealthy can enforce them or if remedies are subject to inordinate delays.”
– Address by President Nelson Mandela to the Workshop for Human Rights Education (Durban, September 1994)
As we mark Human Rights Day on 21 March, 2008, 14 years after our country’s first truly democratic elections, we should indeed celebrate what we have achieved since then. For example, our country’s Constitution is one of the most progressive anywhere in the world.
Perhaps we should also pause to reflect on Nelson Mandela’s words in 1994. South Africa’s freedom did not come to us as a perfect gift, complete and eternal. It was worked at over years, even decades. Now, translating into reality elegant words and noble intentions, a reality that touches and enriches the lives of all South Africans, is going to require an effort from all of us.
Canadian educators visit Foundation
March 20, 2008 – A delegation of 25 Canadian educators who are passionate about South Africa and helping children realise their dreams visited the Nelson Mandela Foundation this week to learn more about the work of the Foundation’s Memory and Dialogue programmes.