Zuma due in KWT for Rights Day

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma will return to the Eastern Cape for the second time in 10 days as he is expected to make the keynote address at the Human Rights Day (HRD) celebrations in King William’s Town next Tuesday.

This was announced by MEC Pemmy Majodina, the chairwoman of the intergovernmental steering committee for HRD celebrations, in a press briefing held at Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg yesterday.

Majodina said next Tuesday’s festivities would be linked with the 40th anniversary of Steve Biko’s death.

This will not be Zuma’s last visit to the province this month as he is scheduled to return to Mbizana on March 31 to kickstart the O R Tambo centenary festivities, said Majodina.

Zuma last weekend appeared at two ANC regional conferences – Amathole and Nelson Mandela Bay – where he addressed delegates in what was seen as a resuscitation of the “NDZ17” campaign in the province after it was dealt a blow by Xhosa King Mpendulo Sigcau earlier this year.

NDZ17 is associated with an ANC grouping that is lobbying for Zuma’s ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to take over the party’s presidency in December at the national elective conference. Dlamini-Zuma tried to launch her own campaign in the province by visiting King Sigcau’s great place in Nqadu.

But the Xhosa king told her that SA was not ready for a woman president.

On Tuesday the President will be wearing his government hat when he addresses crowds at the Victoria grounds in King William’s Town.

The theme for this year’s HRD celebrations, said Majodina, was “unity in action in advancing human rights” in honour of the ANC’s longest serving president, Oliver Tambo, who was a human rights lawyer by profession.

The festivities will be broken into three legs, starting on Sunday with a 10km run around Ginsberg – Biko’s birthplace.

On Monday two dialogues on human rights have been scheduled – a provincial one at 11am with the theme “preserving human rights towards sustainable social cohesion”, and a second at 5pm to be streamed live on SAfm. The Steve Biko Centre will host both dialogues.

On the day itself Zuma, accompanied by ministers and premier Phumulo Masualle, is expected to start with a visit to Biko’s grave.

Fifteen other graves surrounding Biko’s have also benefited with renovations from the sport, recreation, arts and culture department in the province.

Zuma will wrap up festivities by delivering a speech at the Victoria ground in the afternoon.