Sudan born Mo Ibrahim was the honourable speaker at this year’s 11th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, held at Freedom Park in Pretoria on Sunday. The venue for the 11th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture was the University of South Africa, which this year celebrates its 140th birthday. Mr Mandela spent much of his 27 years in prison studying law with Unisa and on 17 May 1989, while he was incarcerated at Victor Verster Prison, he graduated in absentia with an LLB from this institution. Dr. Ibrahim is the Founder and Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which he established in 2006 to support good governance and exceptional leadership on the African continent. “I am really honoured to stand here before you today to deliver this lecture. I must confess l looked up the list of previous speakers and found out they fell mostly under categories of either presidents or Nobel Prize Laureates, l am neither,” said Dr Ibrahim. Previous speakers at the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture include Bill Clinton, Archbishop Tutu, former President Thabo Mbeki, Ariel Dorfman; Nobel laureate Professor Wangari Maathai, Mr Kofi Annan, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Serageldin and Mary Robinson. Ibrahim highlighted that while more women in society were academically successful than men, women continued to be sidelined, because of their gender. At the Young Women in Dialogues held at the Freedom Park, Pretoria; Human Rights Champion Graca Machel, confessed to feeling ashamed of the issues of gender inequality in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Machel was not among the official panellists, she was given the podium during a question answer session. She admitted to being moved to tears by the speech of Kave Bulambo, the founder of refugee organisation Women across Borders. Bulambo cried as she spoke of how she escaped the eastern region of the DRC that is widely called the "the rape capital of the world". Bulambo said she escaped to South Africa with just her bags and her siblings. Responding to her speech Machel said: "You made me cry. Some of us have been refugees. To be honest, I felt ashamed. While you were talking I felt ashamed. " Machel said she had previously been involved with a grass roots organisation which dealt with refugee issues. She said she was no longer associated with it. "Just for reminding us, I want to say thank you," Machel said. Artwork: Article 21: Right to Participate in Government & in Free Elections By: Martin Moratilo "The Bufffonon" (Peru) Artwork link: afh.org.za/?q=martin-moratillo-buffoon-0
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 12:59:31 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015