The FAQ page will help the Foundation deal with the numerous queries it receives each day on Nelson Mandela and the work of the Foundation.
Verne Harris, head of the Memory Programme at the Foundation, says the FAQ page is a necessary resource for the website. “We need to be proactive in giving the public information about Madiba. This kind of resource is especially important in the year of his 90th birthday because of the huge increase in attention he and his organisations are receiving.”
Buyi Sishuba and Thoko Mavuso deal with routine correspondence sent to the Nelson Mandela Foundation. They are responsible for responding to queries or passing them to the appropriate person at the Foundation.
Sishuba says she often has to respond to enquiries by providing details of Mr Mandela’s retirement, as well as details of his life that are already available in print or on the website.
“We get a lot of queries every day, especially from students overseas doing projects. They ask questions like why he went to prison and why he spent so much time there. Every single day we get a number of requests from people wanting to interview him or meet him, as well as people wanting signed pictures of him for their autograph collections.”
Mr Mandela is now officially retired. He no longer does interviews, has restricted his engagements significantly, appears in public seldom, and no longer travels as often as he once did.
Sishuba and Mavuso deal with up to 100 letters, e-mails and phone calls a day. They also have to turn down funding requests, by explaining the work of the Foundation and describing the nature of its social outreach.
Mavuso hopes the FAQ page will provide more clarity on the most commonly asked questions, and will help people navigate the website for more information. She adds: “I hope it can answer the small queries that people send, mainly the queries that deal with Mr Mandela’s retirement. People tend to forget that he is retired!”
She also hopes the FAQ page will guide people to information about the Foundation that is available on the website.