We start off this weekend with a joint programme on Saturday the 16th July 2022 with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Nelson Mandela University hosted by the Royal House of Mandela and the Mvezo Traditional Council at the Nelson Mandela School of Science and Technology at Mvezo commencing at 10:00.
We pick up on this year’s Nelson Mandela International Day theme of ‘Do what you can with what you have where you are’. This is a call to action and spurring on everyone to do something good, no matter what that is and where they find themselves. It is also a reminder that we must act locally and that everyone has the ability to be an agent of change and transformation.
This call by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Nelson Mandela University is also a firm commitment to upholding President Mandela’s legacy and an expression of his untiring commitment to transform the conditions of the place that gave birth to him and the place that gifted the world the greatest icon of human rights, justice and peace of our times.
We are delighted at this joint initiative to introduce sustainability through agricultural science to Mvezo and we trust that this initiative will spread to every rural village in South Africa as well as community gardens in peri-urban and urban settings.
On Sunday 17th July 2022 we join the Africa Muslims Agency (AMA) in distributing 312 blankets and food parcels to three villages surrounding Port St Johns. Symbolically we are donating 104 blankets and food parcels to each village as Nkosi Dalibhunga would have been 104 years old on the 18th July 2022. This charitable act will bring much cheer and relief in the bitter cold winter weather that we have been experiencing.
On Monday the 18th July 2022 Minister Thoko Didiza and the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development will join us in Qunu. This programme is geared at developing the agricultural potential of the area and its surrounds. The theme is consistent with Madiba’s humble beginnings as a cattle herder and his intimate connection to the land that gave birth to him and that shaped his formative years.
This year we wish to encourage every household in every village, town and city in South Africa to start a food garden, plant fruit shrubs and trees and to cultivate indigenous herbs and plants. Difficult times lie ahead and we can start by inculcating good habits, useful skills and an attitude of doing whatever we can, with what we have where ever we are.
Nkosi Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council and grandson of famed South African President Nelson Mandela. Member of Parliament (MP) South Africa National Assembly. All articles by Nkosi Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela
