News – Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Nelson Mandela meets with U-12 soccer team

‘We are thinking of you,’ Madiba tells young stars

27 August 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Aug 27, 2008 – Nelson Mandela today met young South African soccer champions from Bree Primary School in Mayfair, Johannesburg, ahead of their trip to France to represent South Africa.

The 15 members of the Danone Under-12 team met Mr Mandela at his offices in Johannesburg.

Nelson Mandela statue unveiled in Cape Town

Family members gather at Groot Drakenstein Prison for ceremony

21 August 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Nelson Mandela, his family, friends and supporters, braved a downpour to witness the unveiling of a statue of him at the prison from which he was released in 1990.

The 3.2m bronze statue weighing 460kg was donated by the Sexwale Family Foundation to honour the anti-apartheid icon in his 90th year.

It stands at the entrance to Drakenstein Prison.

Online exhibition marks UDF anniversary

Archivists use posters to recall formation of United Democratic Front 25 years ago

20 August 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Aug 20, 2008 – On this day in 1983, the United Democratic Front was formed to mobilise South Africans in the struggle for a democratic, united, non-racial and non-sexist country.

The UDF drew together hundreds of organisations representing “freedom-loving people” and became a vital link with the banned ANC.

Twenty-five years later, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the South African History Archive (SAHA)  have developed a virtual exhibition of struggle art and photographs of that time.

The exhibition uses archival materials to explore the vital role the UDF played in bringing democracy to South Africa, and commemorates the sacrifices made by members of the organisation, which was disbanded on August 20, 1991.

Convening the Mandela Archive

Foundation aims to unify all resources documenting Nelson Mandela’s life and times

8 August 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

August 8, 2008 – The memory resources documenting Nelson Mandela’s life and times are fragmented and geographically scattered, both within South Africa and internationally, with resources embedded in various legal and other jurisdictions.

As a result, there are multiple stakeholders in the legacy of Nelson Mandela over and above the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF), something that Verne Harris, Programme Manager for Memory at the NMF, thinks is crucial for people to know.

Madiba enjoys children’s cards

Laughter, joking and thanks as Mr Mandela celebrates with Foundation staff

5 August 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

August 5, 2008 – Nelson Mandela took time today to view an exhibition of some of the thousands of hand-drawn 90th birthday cards sent to him by children.

He expressed his “joy” at a private celebration with staff of the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg.

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.

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