The Nelson Mandela Foundation has thanked the Brazilian Football Confederation for generously donating an estimated £120 000 of the income it received from this week’s friendly match against South Africa, to the Foundation.
The donation will be used by the Foundation in its work promoting social justice and democracy, both in South Africa and internationally.
“The pride, passion and tradition of sport is what connects all people as individuals, families, communities and nations. The Foundation supported this through the granting of their permission to the use of the 46664 trademark, Mandela’s prison number, as a tribute on the players’ uniforms for the event,” says Nelson Mandela Foundation director of communications and outreach Danielle Melville in a statement.
She adds that Madiba “recognised the intrinsic power of sport to bind”, and had himself said: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand.”
Following the announcement on 6 March 2014 of the announcement, Tokyo Sexwale, chairman of the Foundation’s Resource Mobilisation Committee and a member of FIFA, expressed sincere gratitude for the donation and added: “We wish Brazil well as it takes over the baton of leadership from South Africa to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup.”
Mr Sexwale further recognised mainstay sporting supporters of the Foundation, including the UK-based Sunderland AFC, for their continued financial contributions towards the Foundation’s core work in living Tata’s legacy.
He said that further contributions from other sporting organisations will be made known as they arise.