On July 18, South Africans across the country celebrated the inaugural Mandela Day by assisting those less fortunate than themselves. It was a day on which individuals embraced their power to make a difference in their communities, following former South African President Nelson Mandela’s example and doing something good in service of their communities.
Mandela Day culminated in a host of activities dedicated to making a difference in honour of Mr Mandela. In Atteridgeville and Kliptown, community members truly took the message of service to others to heart.
In Atteridgeville, just outside Pretoria, community members gathered at the Makhaza Stadium in Jeffsville Informal Settlement for a reconciliation event.
The valuable Mandela Day event took inspiration from Mr Mandela’s leadership example, building on the values of reconciliation and forgiveness that the 91-year-old human rights champion espouses. Both South Africans and foreigners living in the country committed to forgive the xenophobic violence that shocked South Africa in May 2008.
The healing initiative was born out of a series of “community conversations” that were arranged by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to create dialogue between Somali and South African community members in the wake of the violent attacks.
On June 20, 2009 an Atteridgeville community member reached out to foreign residents, apologising for the xenophobic attacks on Somali community members. From this impromptu apology, the reconciliation initiative grew, and Somali Association of South Africa Chairperson Abdul Hassam offered to slaughter a cow and offer it to the community as a gesture of forgiveness.
Speaking to community members gathered for the function, Ernest Tshavhuyo, secretary general of the Atteridgeville Civic Organisation (ACO), which helped to quell the violence by establishing a broad-based peace forum in the area, reminded the crowd that foreigners helped liberate South Africa from apartheid.
Community members at the Makhaza Stadium in Atteridgeville
“Most of the anti-apartheid leaders were harboured in these [foreign] countries. We used to sing the Lusaka Lusaka. I see no reason why, as South Africans today, we have to act in this way. Madiba [Mr Mandela] taught us reconciliation is the only source of humanity,” said Tshavhuyo.
“I, as a person on behalf of South Africans, apologise. We as ACO, we are saying we are sorry [for] what has happened. We are saying to you Zimbabwean people, Mozambican people, Congolese people, Zambian people, and nations which I didn’t mention, we are sorry.”
Hassam accepted the apology, saying: “We have received this apology and, on behalf of the refugee community, I am saying we have forgiven you also.”
Meanwhile, in Kliptown, Soweto, staff from the National Heritage Council and community members spent Mandela Day refurbishing the Charlotte Maxeke African Methodist Church.
More than 180 volunteers, led by the National Heritage Council, used the day to clean up the dilapidated church, where parts of the Freedom Charter were adopted in 1955.
Volunteers arrived early on Saturday July 18 to begin repairing the church, which is named after struggle icon Charlotte Maxeke. The volunteers replaced broken windows, repaired doors, removed rubble, swept and cleaned the church. They also laid gravel in the courtyard to prepare the area, which is set to be cemented over.
“We have planted a seed of the spirit of ubuntu [togetherness] in this community and we hope that it will grow beyond the 67 minutes,” said National Heritage Council CEO Sonwabile Mancotywa.
“Tata Mandela continues to be a living example of ubuntu. It was appropriate for the National Heritage Council to dedicate its time to the 67 minutes because Nelson Mandela was the first recipient of our Ubuntu Award in 2006.”
At the church, children had their faces painted and painted handprints, their names and birthday messages for Mr Mandela on pieces of cloth that were dedicated to the church.
Once the work was complete, church secretary Pretty Barrington said: “I feel on top of the world.”