Never again will parents bringing their children to Cape Town for cancer treatment have to sleep on the streets. The Out of Africa Children’s Foundation yesterday launched its second facility in Cape Town in four months – a children’s centre in Newlands which will accommodate six families while ensuring that their children receive the best pre- and post-operative care.

The Out of Africa Children’s Foundation is the brainchild of Kim Ferroli-Highfield, whose daughter survived cancer 15 years ago.

“When we were going through treatment we thought we were hard done by, until we started meeting other families who had to cope not only with the trauma of their sick children but also with not having decent places to stay or food to eat. When I learned that a mother who had brought her child to Cape Town for treatment was living under a bridge and was brutally raped one day on her way from hospital I knew that I had to do something.”

In September Ferroli-Highfield opened a hospice for terminally ill children and their parents, in Parow. Yesterday, she was at it again – in Newlands, in a house rented at a nominal fee from the City of Cape Town. At her side was the foundation’s new patron, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“She is a real powerhouse; quite extraordinary,” Archbishop Tutu said. “There are so many good people doing good things in our society, it’s just that we seldom have the opportunity to read about them.”

Copyright of these photos rest with Harpo Inc

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa has achieved a stunning success with the graduation last week of the first class of 72 pupils. The girls, from poverty-stricken households – many profoundly affected by the HIV pandemic – were personally selected by Ms Winfrey on a road tour of South Africa in 2006. “Invest in girls,” was her message at the graduation ceremony on Saturday (14 January 2012). Photojournalist Benny Gool has tracked the project since its inception. These are a selection of his images that were released to media this week on Ms Winfrey’s behalf.

Tens of thousands of ANC members and supporters, African heads of state and diplomats from across the world flocked to Mangaung (Bloemfontein) in celebratory mood for the 100th birthday of Africa’s oldest liberation movement. The centenary celebrations kicked off a year-long national programme that will culminate, back in Managung, for what is shaping up to be the most bruising electoral conference in the organisation’s illustrious history.

Among the Presidents and former Presidents who made their way to Mangaung were Mozambique’s Armando Guebuza, Namibia’s Hifikepunye Pohamba, Uganda’s Yuweri Museveni, Zambia’s Michael Sata and Kenneth Kaunda, Ghana’s Jerry Rawlings and Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas, Other notable attendees included Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, former US senator Jesse Jackson, and ANC veterans Andrew Mlangeni and Ahmed Kathrada.

The weekend festivities included an inter-faith service, the lighting of a centenary torch in the old Wesleyan Church in Waaihoek, where the party was launched in 1912, and a rally in the Free State Stadium where President Jacob Zuma read the organisation’s annual 8 January statement.

The mood in Mangaung was festive and inclusionary. The streets of Bloemfontein were decked out in ANC colours, with lamp poles adorned with individual thank you messages to South Africa’s neighbouring states and Cuba for their support in the struggle to overthrow apartheid. The theme for the centenary celebrations is “Unity in Diversity”.

When the ANC returns to Mangaung in December, President Zuma will be seeking a mandate from his organisation for a second presidential term.

About 10 000 marchers, singers and dancers, with painted faces and sporting kilometers of brightly coloured satin – transvestites, gymnasts, brass marching bands and Ghoema drums, among them – paraded through Cape Town on 2 January to celebrate the city’s annual “Tweede Nuwejaar Cape Minstrel Carnival”. The spectacle was witnessed by tens of thousands of locals and tourists who thronged the traditional marching route from District Six through the central city and the Bo Kaap.

The carnival is one of Cape Town’s most enduring traditions with roots stretching all the way back to the 1700s when groups of slaves of African, Madagascan, Indian and Indonesian origin gathered in public places after working on Sundays or public holidays, particularly on the day after New Year, for song, dance and pantomime. Indigenous Khoi and European musical styles were also embraced. Later, in the 1800s, after the Cape was visited by United States confederate ships, such as the Alabama, American minstrelsy, painted faces, banjos and crooning were added to the unique cultural mix. Alongside the Klopse tradition there also emerged the traditions of the Malay Choirs, Nagkoore (night choirs) and Christmas Choir Bands.

For hundreds of years the evolving Kaapse Klopse Carnival literally represented the freedom of the human spirit as a counterpoint to the deprivations and degradations of slavery, colonialism and apartheid.

Today, the carnival celebrates the diverse strands that make up the fabric of Cape Town society. About 70 Klopse troupes, from communities across Cape Town and the Cape Flats, participated in the 2012 carnival. The troupes are judged and win prizes, for among other things, their dress and the caliber of their bands and choirs.

Cape Town twins Hasan and Husein Essop, 26, visited Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu at his Milnerton home on Tuesday to present him with the new South African soccer shirt they helped to design. The shirt, launched in London at the Design Museum last month, bears a hand-drawn rainbow motif inspired by the Archbishop’s notion of the Rainbow Nation and evocative of the rolling hills of the African landscape. The colours of the rainbow are borrowed from the colours of the South African flag. A thrilled Tutu said the shirt was his first Christmas present of the year, adding he hoped it would not be the last. His Festive Season wish was for South Africans to reduce carnage on the roads, and for the rich to share their blessings with the poor. The twins were approached by sportswear company Puma to design the shirt after their photography garnered an award at last year’s Spier Contemporary Competition.

Government officials, members of St Augustine’s Cricket Club and the D’Oliviera family, and a trio of Archbishops, gathered at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on Sunday (18 December 2011) to celebrate the life of an extraordinary player who became an international symbol of the futility and stupidity of apartheid sport.

Basil D’Oliviera was one of the best cricketers South Africa ever produced, but could not represent his country due to the colour of his skin. He spent the prime of his career playing club cricket in Cape Town before moving to England in his 30s and going on to represent his adoptive country with distinction.

His selection for the English squad to tour South Africa in 1968 precipitated an international scandal. Then-South African prime minister BJ Vorster decreed that D’Oliviera would not be welcome; a black batsman flaying a white bowling attack would have severely challenged the notion of white supremacy. Ultimately the tour was cancelled, and apartheid South Africa was cast into the sporting wilderness for more than 20 years.

Among those paying tribute to him yesterday were the presiding Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, and his predecessors, Njongonkule Ndungane and Desmond Tutu. Deputy Minister of Sport Gert Oosthuizen and representatives of the Western Cape Provincial Government and City of Cape Town read homilies. Former South African spin wizard Paul Adams lit a candle and said a few words on behalf of St Augustine’s. And messages were read on behalf of D’Oliviera’s son, Damon, and the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.

In the congregation were proud D’Oliviera relatives including his wheelchair-bound cousin, Mrs Shirley Assam. Children handed out bookmarks with a photograph of D’Oliviera and the words: “We thank you for changing the complexion of sport in South Africa.”

D’Oliviera died in England last month, six weeks after his 80th birthday.

Friends of Kurdish Human Rights Group South Africa (KHRAG) gathered at Baran’s Restaurant in Cape Town on Sunday (18 December) for a belly-dancing fundraiser. KHRAG is chaired by former judge of the Cape High Court, Mr Justice Essa Moosa. A 27-year conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish Workers Party has reportedly claimed more than 40 000 lives.

Former comrades and family members visited the graves of Western Cape anti-apartheid soldiers Anton Fransch, Ashley Kriel, Robert Waterwich, Coline Williams, Evelyn Holtzmann and Zollie and Hettie Malindi on Heroes Day, 16 December. Mkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress, was established 50 years ago.

District Six restitution claimant Mr James Craig participated in the public consultation process for the redevelopment of the area at Trafalgar High School last week. He brought with him his baptism certificate to prove that he was baptised in the Moravian Church that still stands in District Six. The certificate names him as James Kraak. He was later baptised for a second time, at St Phillip’s Church in Chapel Street, where his name was recorded as the Anglicised “Craig” – the name that is recorded in his identity book and with which he has lived throughout his life.

The surveillance cameras installed by international news agencies outside the Qunu retirement home of former President Nelson Mandela had uninterrupted views of Mr Mandela’s homestead and the family graveyard.

The cameras, erected atop 10 metre high poles directly opposite the entrance to Mr Mandela’s home, were removed by police this week.

According to South African newspaper reports on 15 December 2011, United States news agency Associated Press confessed to installing cameras on property belonging to local chief, Nkosikazi Nokwanele Balizulu. Another camera on the chief’s property was reportedly installed by British news agency, Reuters. Nkosikazi Balizulu confirmed that the cameras had been installed with her permission, but would not say if she had received any payment from AP or Reuters.

The Daily Dispatch newspaper quoted a spokesman for Associated Press denying that the cameras were being used for surveillance, and insisting that they would only be switched on “in the event of a major news story involving the former President”. The AP spokesman added that the agency had made similar preparations outside the Vatican prior to Pope John Paul II’s death.

The newspaper quoted the police saying that the erection of the cameras was illegal.

Contacted today, Mthatha police VIP unit commander Captain Sipika, who is in charge of security at the Mandela homestead, said he was on his way to Qunu for a meeting with Brigadier Gary McClaren, the head of a special task team established to investigate the matter.

The two white Rhinos drugged and dehorned by poachers in Worcester, in the Western Cape, on Sunday appear likely to survive the ordeal, a ranger at the Fairy Glen private nature reserve said today (14 December). “If you asked me yesterday I would not have been so sure. But they are both looking a little stronger today,” the ranger said. The pregnant six-year-old female was on her feet, though still visibly shaky, while her nine-year-old bull companion – known as Higgins – had managed to climb a small hill and find shelter in a bushy area near the the guest accommodation on the reserve. It helped that the weather was cool, with unseasonal snow on the surrounding mountain tops, as they would have quickly succumbed to dehydration in more usual summer heat. The Rhinos were darted with an overdose of a morphine derivative, known as M99, before having their horns hacked off with pangas or machetes. Besides losing the horns, the female is likely to lose her unborn calf as a result of the ordeal. Farm owner Mr Pieter de Jager today called for access to veterinarian drugs and dart guns to be regulated in the same way as the state regulated access to assault rifles and ammunition. He said the investigation was in the hands of the police, who were studying closed circuit television footage of the area. He had not been informed of any breakthroughs or arrests, De Jager said.

When Prince Albert of Monaco and his South African wife, Princess Charlene, dropped in to visit Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on Thursday (8 December 2011) they took the opportunity to hand over a cheque for R1m to the Giving Organisation Trust. The Trust will distribute the donation to 10 charities including the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation in Cape Town. Providing musical entertainment were children from another of the beneficiary charities, Cotlands, which runs an early childhood development centre in Macassar, Cape Town. The children sang: If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

Trafalgar High School was a hive of activity today as former residents of District Six gathered to view proposals for the redevelopment of the area bulldozed by apartheid authorities in the 1970s.

Verified claimants returning to District Six are being asked to consider a unique restitution proposal that will not only secure them homes with market values of more than R1m, but also shares in the special purpose vehicle that will own and manage all retail, commercial and rented residential property to be developed in the area.

The claimants are being asked to contribute approximately R225 000 to participate in the scheme. It is anticipated that the first dividend the special purpose vehicle will pay out in five years will more than cover these contributions. They will thereafter receive annual dividends in perpetuity.

It is proposed that those claimants unable or unwilling to contribute will still receive homes, but will not receive shares in – or income from – the special purpose vehicle.

The integrated development framework is on display at Trafalgar High School this week as part of the statutory consultative process. This “open-house” consultation will be followed by a series of focus group discussions to explain the detail of the plan.

It is proposed that a total of 1690 homes will be completed by February 2014, including 1060 premium 90m2 three-bedroom units for the verified beneficiary community. When the entire development is complete it will comprise approximately 5000 homes, some of which will conform with government requirements for subsidised rental accommodation (social housing) and for sale on the so-called Gap market, but the bulk of which will be rented out at market-related prices by the District Six special purpose vehicle owned by the restitution claimant community.

The framework has the blessing of the District Six Beneficiary and Redevelopment Trust, the National Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, the Western Cape Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town.

The proposed approach ensures that the development qualifies for all available subsidies from government, provides the required densification to achieve the economy of scale to make the development viable and sustainable – and attains the goal of integration across entrenched racial and class divides in Cape Town.

Returnees will be able to choose from a variety of housing typologies, from row-homes to duplexes and low-rise apartments, in what has been fashioned as a model inner-city style development.

It is proposed that the historic District Six street grid will be restored. New Hanover Street will be the retail spine, with shops at ground level and apartments above. Commercial property will be developed on the edge of the City, extracting maximum value from the land to cross-subsidise the macro plan.

Restitution claimants hoping to make a quick buck from their acquisition of their valuable new properties will be disappointed to learn that they will be required to sign a social compact agreeing not to sell their homes to any party other than the District Six special purpose vehicle for at least 15 years. This condition guarantees that the returnees anchor and shape the community, and prevents rapid gentrification.

In what is billed as South Africa’s biggest free open-air event, the Mayor of Cape Town Patricia De Lille switched on Cape Town’s festive season lights on Sunday 4 December – and the party began.

The entertainment was led by Hip Hop Pantsula, Jozi, and the Festive Lights Showcase ensemble. Among the highlights of this year’s display are three themed festive lights crossings: Africa’s Greatest City, The Musical City, and Bird Life. It’s been a big year for Cape Town, with the city being named World Design Capital, and Table Mountain being declared one of the New7Wonders of Nature.

Family’s quest for truth continues

The family of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, whose death in police custody 40 years ago this week has never been resolved, is hopeful that the much-debated Protection of Sensitive Information legislation will provide a mechanism to finally reveal the truth.

“It is our hope that the new legislation, when eventually enacted, will complement the Promotion of Access to Information Act (2000) in providing the necessary instruments to access documentation held by the National Archives and Records Services of South Africa, the police and State Security Agency,” said Timol’s nephew, Mr Imtiaz Cajee.

“These public institutions are still in possession of valuable information that is more than 20-years-old, relating not only to the untimely death of Timol, but also other activists. It is necessary to balance the interests of the public and national security, but we hope that this balance will not be achieved at the expense of exposing the truth behind the deaths of prominent activists, my uncle included,” Cajee said.

Timol’s death on 27 October 1971 provoked a national and international outcry. The 29-year-old Roodepoort school teacher was arrested at a police roadblock on 22 October 1971, and was dead five days later. An inquest found that Timol had committed suicide by jumping to his death at the notorious security police torture chamber in Johannesburg known as John Vorster Square Police Station. The inquest failed to explain the gruesome marks and bruises covering the body. Timol was the 22nd anti-apartheid activist to die in police detention.

Timol’s killing was condemned by many, at home and abroad. Public meetings and inter-faith prayer vigils took place across the nation. Concerned white South Africans wrote letters to the media demanding the truth. University students and lecturers arranged protests at various educational institutions. Internationally, the United Nations, the National Union of Students (NUS) of the United Kingdom, the North London Association of the National Union of Teachers and Amnesty International were vocal in their call for justice.

Twenty-five years after Timol’s killing, his mother relived the family’s tragic ordeal before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in a liberated South Africa. But hopes that the TRC process would reveal the true circumstances of the death came to naught. Timol’s contribution to the making of democracy was acknowledged by no less a figure than President Nelson Mandela, at the renaming of the Azaadville Secondary School to the Ahmed Timol Secondary School in 1999.

In 2005, following several years of research, Timol’s nephew, Cajee, published a book about his uncle titled: Timol, A Quest for Justice. Four years later, Timol received national recognition with the posthumous award of the National Order of Luthuli.

But – still – the names of those responsible for selling out, arresting and killing Ahmed Timol, and the precise circumstances of his death, remain shrouded in mystery. Cajee’s quest for justice remains unrequited.

“There is sufficient evidence to indicate that my uncle’s activities were monitored at the Teacher’s Training College and later during the years he spent teaching at Roodepoort Indian High School. There was an active network of informants in the community that would undoubtedly have contributed to his eventual demise,” said Cajee.

“That he stayed in London with banned activists was known to the security branch and shared with British intelligence. And there are reports that the Lenin University he attended for political training in 1969 had been infiltrated by the CIA.

“His return to South Africa in February 1970 and setting up of underground structures for the banned Communist Party was known to the Security Branch and BOSS (Bureau of State Security). His communications with London through secret coded text messages were intercepted indicating that his operation was compromised,” Cajee said.

“The police claimed he was arrested at a routine police roadblock, However, evidence proves that an order of arrest had been granted by the Commissioner of the Police.”

Cajee’s resolution to resolve the riddle of his uncle’s death remains undiminished.

“The circumstances in our country have drastically changed since the killing of my uncle 40 years ago. In the end, apartheid was consigned to history through a negotiated settlement between formerly opposing forces. For negotiations to succeed and reconciliation to take root required compromises to be made, and the TRC was one of the key mechanisms created to begin the process of national healing.

“As a nation seeking to rebuild its soul we decided against conducting Nuremburg-style trials. The TRC gave the security police the opportunity to tell the truth about their actions, for which they would receive amnesty from prosecution in return. Few took the opportunity. Those responsible for my uncle’s death did not come forward. The truth remains hidden

“If the cost of reconciling is to subvert the truth for ever, surely the price is too high.”

* Cajee is working on the second edition of his book, Timol, Quest for Justice. The title of the second edition is, Timol, Quest for Truth.

Picture Courtsey of Imtiaz Cajee

Marine scientists believe that dense red tide blooms off the coast of the Cape Peninsula are stripping the ocean of its oxygen content and driving massive shoals of sardines onshore. Residents of the coastal suburbs of Hout Bay and Kommetjie benefitted over the weekend, descending on the beach to collect millions of the shimmering little fish. Although the currently prevalent red tides are believed to be non-toxic, they comprise billions of particularly spiky algae and the scientists are also investigating if these organisms are adding to the sardines distress by clogging their gills. The red tides have been present around the Cape Peninsula for several weeks, and are believed to have been responsible for sardines clogging the water intake pipes at the Koeberg nuclear power station early in November. There were sporadic reports yesterday of mature Yellowtail and Kabeljou washing ashore from Muizenberg to Hout Bay.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu visited one of his favourite charity’s in the world – The Philani Health and Nutrition Project, in Khayelitsha, Cape Town – bearing Christmas gifts and enjoying a special nativity play. Philani is a community-based non-governmental organisation committed to the protection of the rights of children to proper nutrition and healthcare in communities where malnourished children and destitute mothers are most vulnerable. The project was initiated by the Tutu family doctor, Dr Ingrid Le Roux, in the 1980s. Tutu, the patron of the project, described it as “an oasis of goodness”.

The final act in the three-day birthday celebration of Cape Town’s beloved Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu took place at the University of the Western Cape on 8 October 2011. Because His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was not allowed to enter South Africa, what the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre had planned as an inaugural lecture instead took the form of a live video discussion between the Archbishop (in Cape Town) and His Holiness (in Dharamsala, India). The discussion, moderated by Professor Judith Mayotte, held the 800-strong audience spellbound throughout. In the audience were Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale, who is a member of the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust board, Mayor of Cape Town Ms Patricia De Lille, academics and friends and family of the Archbishop’s. The event was preceded by a storm of controversy due to a visa not being issued to allow His Holiness to travel. His Holiness is a patron of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.

A celebration service featuring two church choirs and the Soweto Gospel Choir was held in St George’s Cathedral on 7 October 2011 to mark Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday. The service was led by Archbishop of Cape Town Dr Thabo Makgoba, with the sermon delivered by Archbishop Tutu’s old friend and colleague, Bishop Charles Albertyn. The fact that Albertyn was recently confined to a wheelchair moved Tutu to tears. In the congregation were Deputy President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe, head of the Inkatha Freedom Party Mr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the wife of former President Nelson Mandela Mrs Graca Machel, former World Bank head Ms Ramphele Mamphele, and rock star, Bono.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday celebrations got underway at St George’s Cathedral on 6 October 2011 with the launch of a new book, Tutu – An Authorised Portrait, written by the Archbishop’s daughter, The Rev Mpho Tutu, and veteran journalist Alastair Sparks. The highlight of the book launch was the signing of 1980s U2 hit song, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for, by U2 front-man Bono with the Soweto Gospel Choir.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been invited to South Africa by a number of universities and organisations including Stellenbosch University, the Tutu Centre and the Mahatma Gandhi Trust to give public talks, deliver Bishop Tutu’s 80th Birth Anniversary Inaugural Lecture and to receive the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation.

His Holiness was scheduled to visit South Africa from October 6th to October 14th, 2011. Accordingly, the visa applications for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the entourage members were submitted to the South African High Commission in New Delhi at the end of August and original passports were submitted on September 20th, over two weeks ago.

His Holiness was to depart for South Africa on October 6th but visas have not been granted yet. We are, therefore, now convinced that for whatever reason or reasons, the South African government finds it inconvenient to issue visa to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

His Holiness travels around the world to promote human values, religious harmony, world peace, and compassion: principles that form the core of his communications and interactions everywhere. And in doing so, His Holiness does not want to create any inconveniences to anyone, individuals or governments

His Holiness has thus decided to call off his upcoming visit to South Africa. And, he regrets the inconveniences caused to his hosts and the large number of South African public who were keenly waiting to receive him and hear his message.

 

29 September 2011

“Let him in – Now!”: Let His Holiness the Dalai Lama in to South Africa

Civil society petition to be submitted to the South African Government: President Zuma and all Cabinet members

1. We are people who live and work in South Africa (SA) and elsewhere. We are committed to peace and non-violence.

2. We believe in freedom of expression and free movement.

3. We believe in upholding the SA Constitution.

4. We respect all spiritual leaders. We respect the spiritual and historical leadership of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and also the spiritual leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is the de facto spiritual leader of at least 300 million Buddists worldwide.

5. We are outraged that the SA government and its officials have again acted unconstitutionally to effectively prevent Nobel Peace Prize recipient His Holiness the Dalai Lama from entering South Africa to attend the birthday celebrations and inaugural talk hosted by Nobel Peace Prize recipient the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Such conduct unfairly undermines our rights and the right of others, and it undermines our Constitutional freedoms and values.

6. We are embarrassed by the decision and conduct of the SA government – which is reminiscent of Apartheid South Africa.

7. We believe that his Holiness the Dalai Lama is being refused entry ito our (sovereign) country on the basis of political considerations that are inconsistent with our Constitution and the values contained in it.

8. We believe that SA is an independent sovereign Constitutional state that should not allow individuals who qualify for entry into SA under our law to be arbitrarily refused access on the basis of trade pressure exerted by another government.

9. There is simply no good excuse or Constitutional reason to deny His Holiness the Dalai Lama entry to South Africa.

10. We also believe that the misinformation campaign launched by officials in our government (Department of International Relations and Cooperation DIRCO) on procedural aspects of the application for a visa is again a ruse. We believe that the lack of proper information about this process undermines our right to access information and our right to know.

11. We believe that the conduct of the government and its officials in DIRCO and Department of Home Affairs as well as the decision to effectively protract his application for entry and thereby refuse him entry, is unconstitutional.

12. Such conduct is designed to ensure that very little time exists for ordinary people such as us, regardless of our faith and affiliations to challenge the SA government’s unconstitutional behavior.

13. This matter raises serious concerns about the ability of officials and Ministers to respect the rule of law. Again, we feel that our foreign policy is being dictated by arbitrary and singular concerns.

14. We will not stand by this time and watch this happen.

Therefore:

15. As people living in SA we are ashamed and hurt by the manner in which the SA government has chosen to respond to this matter, we say that it has wronged the Archbishop and the Dalai Lama.

16. We urgently call on our government to immediately grant permission for His Holiness the Dalai Lama to travel to SA as per his invitation from peace activist and struggle hero Archbishop Tutu. Our law allows this and our Constitution demands it.

17. We call on everyone in SA and internationally to condemn the refusal by the SA government to make adequate provision to allow His Holiness the Dalai Lama to come to SA for the visit –and we urge them to show their displeasure through non-violent peaceful protest and action here in South Africa and at SA embassies all over the world.

Initial signatories:

1. Desmond Tutu Peace Centre

2. Western Cape Religious Leaders Forum

3. Buddhist Practitioner Group RSA

4. SA Friends of Tibet

5. Ndifuna Ukwazi

6. South African Peace Alliance

7. Cape Town Interfaith Initiative

8. Reclaim Camissa Trust

 

The world today mourns the passing of a visionary African woman, Professor Wangari Maathai.

Professor Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and a leading voice on the continent for human rights, women’s rights and environmental conservation.

While serving on Kenya’s National Council of Women of Kenya, in 1976, Professor Maathai introduced the idea of women planting trees in Kenya to reduce poverty and conserve the environment. At last count, the Green Belt Movement she helped to found had assisted women to plant more than 40 million trees.

She understood and acted on the inextricable links between poverty, rights and environmental sustainability. One can but marvel at her foresight and the scope of her success. She was a true African heroine.

Our condolences go to Professor Maathai’s family, to the people of Kenya, and to the countless women (and men) across Africa and the world to whom she was an inspiration.

Name symbolises hope for continuation of Royal House of Mandela

Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela and Nkosikazi Nobubele Anais Mandela of Mvezo are proud to announce the birth of the new heir of the Royal House of Mandela.

His Royal Highness Nkosi Qheya II Zanethemba Mandela was born in Johannesburg on 1 September 2011. The two-week-old infant travelled to Qunu on Thursday to meet his great-grandfather, Nkosi Dalibhunga, the former President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Following AbaThembu tradition, the child’s names were chosen by the family elder, Nkosi Dalibhunga.

Qheya was the birth name of AbaThembu His Royal Majesty King Gangelizwe, son of HRH Prince Mtirara, whose brother, HRH Prince Mandela, was the former President’s grandfather. Mtirara and Mandela were sons of His Royal Majesty King Ngubengcuka who ruled from 1790-1832.

Zanethemba translates into English as, “Bringing Hope”. The name was chosen as a symbol of the continuity of the family. As the first born son of Nkosi Dalibhunga’s male heir, the child represents a continuation of the Mandela family and the journey undertaken by their forefathers.

According to custom, Nkosi Qheya’s mother’s family presided over the birth, and the infant spent his first days on earth with his mother’s family before travelling to Qunu to be introduced to the Mandela’s.

Soon after arriving in Qunu, Nkosi Zwelivelile paid a visit to the Mandela graveyard to inform his great-grandfather, Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, and other ancestors, of the new arrival. The following day, Nkosi Qheya was introduced to his great-grandfather, Nkosi Dalibhunga, the former President.

The youngster will be introduced to the broader Mandela family in Qunu when he is one-month-old, and thereafter to the community of Mvezo Komkhulu, seat of the Royal House of Mandela.

STRUGGLE STALWART: Former Mkhonto we Sizwe soldier Noruga Richmond Tobela – aka Danny Boy – was laid to rest in Gugulethu on 20 August 2011. Tobela was 41-years-old.

A group of young San people from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana met Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu at the retired cleric’s office in Milnerton this week. The group, chosen by their remote Kalahari communities to represent five different click-language groups, were in Cape Town to attend a conference at UCT. They expressed interest in meeting the Archbishop after learning of his San ancestry, on his mother’s side, which was revealed last year through genome sequencing.

Photos Benny Gool

Filmed by Lindixolo Bhavuma, Oryx Multimedia

19 July 2011

PRESS STATEMENT

RUSSELL TRIBUNAL ON PALESTINE TO CONVENE IN CAPE TOWN’S ICONIC DISTRICT SIX

Stephane Hessel and Alice Walker confirmed as members of the jury

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine will convene in District Six, Cape Town, site of a brutal apartheid-era forced removal – the land has remained undeveloped on the edge of the city since it was declared “a white group area” and the homes of black residents were demolished in the 1970s.

The Cape Town session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine – to be held 5-6 November – will consider whether Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people fits the international legal definitions of the crime of apartheid.

In the jury, confirmed by internationl coordinator of the Tribunal Mr Pierre Galand at a press conference in Cape Town today, are:

• Mr Stephane Hessel, 93, the Nazi concentration camp survivor who helped draft the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. He is an Ambassador of the French Republic, and honorary president of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine; and

• Ms Alice Walker, the African American author, poet and human rights activist best known for the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Colour Purple.

The Cape Town session, in November 2011, follows sessions in Barcelona and London last year. The final session will take place in New York in 2012.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is an international people’s tribunal created in response to the international community’s inaction with respect to Israel’s recognised violations of international law.

Ms Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, activist, former South African cabinet minister and member of the South African Support Committee organising the Cape Town session, told today’s press conference that the United Nations and International Criminal Court findings that apartheid was unlawful and criminal did not only apply to apartheid South Africa.

Although there were clear differences between the State of Israel today and South Africa under apartheid, the question to be answered was whether the policies and practises of the State of Israel fit the international legal descriptions of the crime of apartheid.

“May this tribunal that is being held in our country later this year end the crime of silence,” Ms Madlala-Routledge said.

Mr Galand, a retired Senator from Belgium and lifelong human rights campaigner, said the fact that the Tribunal sought to engender human rights for Palestinians did not mean it had an anti-Semitic agenda. Many friends of the Tribunal were Jewish, he said, and many members of the Jewish faith were fierce proponents of human rights for all.

“I believe strongly the Russell Triubunal is an important contribution to the international civil society movement to rehabilitate internationl law, rehabilitate humanitarian law, and rehabilitate human rights,” Mr Galand said.

The Israel-Palestine conflict was central to global divisions between Europe/America and the Arab world, and between members of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.

Because of the calibre of its patrons, members of the international support committee, jurors and witnesses, the findings of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine were used as important tools to lobby governments and international organisations, such as the European Union and United Nations.

Mr Ronnie Kasrils, former South African cabinet minister and juror of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, said that although South Africa had since 1994 taken a strong stance against human rights abuses in Israel, including withdrawing its ambassador for a period, many South Africans felt that the government could do even more.

“The world expects South Africa to champion the rights of other people. That is the yardstick for South Africans to live up to,” Mr Kasrils said.

Among South Africans who will participate in the Russell Tribunal on Palestine are Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Professor John Dugard.

This statement was issued for the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. For more information, please call Roger Friedman 027 (0) 83 272 5036 or email rogerf@oryxmedia.co.za