Madiba tree takes special place

with the provincial department of sport, recreation, arts culture, is celebrating the day at the Nelson Mandela Museum in the Bhunga Building.

A Mandela legacy canvas, which was bought on a fundraising auction by the British American Tobacco Company, will be unveiled this morning and become a permanent exhibit.

Later this evening, the Department of Arts and Culture and the museum will host a dialogue with the theme “Critical Reflection on the Legacies of Nelson Mandela and O R Tambo”.

● Animal lovers will be getting stuck in at the East London SPCA which has made a call for them to spend their 67 minutes gardening, repairing the aviary and donating dog and cat food, toys or cash to help the organisation pay its medication bills. — YOU cannot cut it‚ prune it or even get into the inner circle where it was planted.

It is the tree planted by the late former president Nelson Mandela in 2008 in Thokoza Park‚ Soweto‚ which has now been gazetted by the Gauteng Heritage Resource Authority as a champion tree.

At the time it was planted‚ the indigenous white stinkwood tree was about three years old.

Today‚ Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo will officially celebrate the status that this tree has received among the millions of trees in the City of Gold.

A champion tree‚ in terms of legislation‚ means that it must be protected and preserved‚ City Parks spokeswoman Jenny Moodley explained.

“Our responsibility as Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo is to make sure that the tree remains tall and strong.

“On Monday we will be unveiling a blue plaque on the tree site as all the city’s heritage sites have the blue plaque as part of ensuring that this site is treated as a heritage site.

“The tree was planted by Madiba as part of his 90th birthday celebration‚” Moodley said.

The tree is situated not far from the parking lot of Thokoza Park. It has

“Inside the fenced area are two plaques. One is an extract from Mandela’s speech when he received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. The second plaque on the right is the timeline of Madiba’s journey from his birth to when he planted the tree.

“This tree will not be cut. If it is going to be pruned in the near future it will have to be done in consultation with an arboriculturist and so on. You can’t expect a normal street team to come and prune this tree‚” Moodley said.

Today the tree will get new fresh flowers around it to mark the occasion. — DDC been fenced for protection.