Mandela’s legacy of service continues
A YEAR after the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 event, organisers said Nelson Mandela’s legacy of service to humanity continued across South Africa and the world as a result of ongoing commitments made during the event.
Organisers released an accountability report yesterday which tracked the performance of each commitment and announcement made as part of the Mandela 100 campaign.
The festival, which took place at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on December 2 last year, brought together Global Citizen’s largest contingency of heads of state, dignitaries, celebrities, musicians, artists, influencers and over 70 000 Global Citizens to celebrate the centenary of Nelson Mandela. Mandela 100, presented and hosted by the Motsepe Foundation, with the House of Mandela, was Global Citizen’s biggest and most profoundly impactful campaign in the world to date.
Mandela 100 galvanised 16 governments, eight international institutions and foundations and 12 corporates to commit over R104 billion. More than R54bn is aimed at positively impacting the lives of 6.24 million South Africans, while the remainder will benefit Africans in countries including Namibia, South Sudan and Nigeria, as well as people in the Middle East and Asia.
More than R36.71bn has been disbursed or allocated in South Africa and around the world. This represents a 35.27% progress towards the complete delivery of commitments made at Mandela 100. More than 80% of commitments are on track to deliver on schedule.
Motsepe Foundation founder and chair Dr Patrice Motsepe said the organisation was pleased with the success and progress on the commitments made at the festival, relating to education and the inclusive land, agriculture, farming and agribusiness projects.
“Numerous meetings were held in each of the nine provinces in South Africa involving traditional leaders, kings, black and white farmers, government, farm workers, and other stakeholders to establish sustainable partnerships in agriculture, farming and agribusiness.”
Mandela’s grandson and co-founder of Africa Rising International Film Festival, Kweku, said: “As my grandfather famously said, ‘The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning’.”
Global Citizen chief executive Hugh Evans said Mandela 100 was a milestone moment for the movement.
“We are excited by the momentum it has maintained a year later. We look back with pride at how our leaders responded to the actions of Global Citizens to make life-changing commitments.”