News

Nelson Mandela addresses ANC rally to celebrate his 90th birthday

‘I would be nothing without the ANC,’ Madiba tells crowd at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria

2 August 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

President of the African National Congress, Comrade Jacob Zuma
President of the Republic of South Africa, Comrade Thabo Mbeki
Leadership of the ANC and of Government
Members, Comrades, Compatriots, Friends

I thank the ANC for organising this rally to celebrate our 90th birthday.

I would be nothing without the ANC. The struggle had been my life and the ANC led that struggle.

I thank the ANC for having given meaning to my 90 years on this planet, in this country we all love so dearly.

And I ask you today: do not celebrate an individual. Celebrate the achievements and reaffirm the values of a great organisation, one that has led for almost a hundred years.

Mail bag full of birthday cards

Messages find their way to Madiba from well-wishers all over the world

1 August 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

August 1, 2008 – A group of 20 of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s staff has been sorting through hundreds of birthday cards sent from around the world for Mr Mandela’s 90th birthday.

Foundation comments on draft secrecy legislation

Access to state documentation could affect work of Memory Programme

31 July 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

July 31, 2008 – Parliament’s public hearings on government’s draft Protection of Information Bill began this week. The Foundation’s Memory Programme Manager, Verne Harris, made a verbal presentation to the Ad Hoc Committee for Intelligence Legislation on Tuesday July 29.

A musical celebration in honour of Madiba

South African concert to honour Mr Mandela’s life work

29 July 2008 |

July 29, 2008 – Some of Africa’s best artists will perform at a special musical concert to be staged in Johannesburg next month in celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life.

The event, to celebrate Madiba’s 90th year, will be held at the Johannesburg Stadium on Saturday August 23 from 11am and will be hosted by the Department of Arts & Culture in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Thaba Nchu community conversation

Community identifies its main concerns around HIV and AIDS

28 July 2008 | Category: Dialogue for Justice

July 28, 2008 – Close to 1 000 people living in the Free State’s Motheo District gathered at Moroka High School at the end of June to participate in a community conversation organised as part of the ongoing Dialogue Programme of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. These conversations are intended to emphasise HIV prevention at community level.

Giyani community conversation

Youth ask for support from the older generation

28 July 2008 | Category: Dialogue for Justice

July 28, 2008 – Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) Dialogue Programme community conversations series returned to Giyani for a second year on July 2, 2008.

While last year’s conversation in November had involved Giyani’s youth, between 16 and 24 years old, this year’s conversation encouraged participants from all age groups to attend the meeting.

Remembering resistance

Booklet records reunion of former trialists and Swedish supporters

24 July 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

July 24, 2008 – A booklet recording the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s dialogue for apartheid-era trialists has been published.

The surviving political trialists from the trials in which Nelson Mandela was a co-accused were reunited by the Foundation in Johannesburg on March 14, 2008.

The lost letter

Delivery sparks memories 37 years later

22 July 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

July 22, 2008 – In May 2008, Ruth Muller, one of the Nelson Mandela Foundation archivists working with Mr Mandela’s personal papers, came across a letter, dated January 1971, in a book of “Family Correspondence” and addressed to “Nomvula”.

At the bottom of the hand-written letter (which would have been written out in the book before it was re-written on letter paper and sent – via the Robben Island authorities) was the name and address of the intended recipient:
Miss Joyce Sikakane

Foundation gets festive

Children join in the fun as their school turns 90 too

18 July 2008 |

July 18, 2008 –The man at the centre of the occasion may not have been there himself, but that didn’t stop those at the Nelson Mandela Foundation from celebrating Madiba’s birthday today.

Madiba’s birthday message

Nelson Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday today by calling on the wealthy to share with the less fortunate

18 July 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

July 18, 2008 – Mr Mandela gave this message to the world:

“There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty. Poverty has gripped our people. If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.”