Children worldwide to write letter to Mandela for a book in SA

Children from across the globe will be invited to write letters in their preferred languages including Hindi to Nelson Mandela with the possibility of them becoming part of an upcoming book to commemorate the birth anniversary of the iconic South African leader.
The book "Letters to Madiba" to be published by 2018 is one of a series of projects in a two-year programme announced in Soweto, south of Johannesburg, by the Nelson Mandela Foundation today.
Children from across the globe will be invited to write a letters with their own hand in their preferred language what they would like to tell Nelson Mandela to commemorate the centenary of the iconic leader's birth on July 18, 1918, although the revered statesman passed away three years ago.

"I have already had discussion with the diplomatic corps in South Africa and they are all behind the project," said Nelson Mandela Foundation CEO Sello Hatang.
The launch was held at the Donaldson Orlando Community Centre where Mandela used to practice sport, especially boxing, during his tenure in the sprawling township designed to resettle all members of Johannesburg's Black African community in the apartheid era.
February 13 was chosen for the launch because it was the day in 1990 that Mandela first addressed the community at a stadium in Soweto following his release after 27 years as a political prisoner.

The programme will see the roll-out of a number of activities during 2017 both locally and abroad, ranging from education and the arts to exhibitions and sports.

Hatang said the centenary programme must inspire the values espoused by Mandela - integrity, passion, respect, service, transformation and transparency.
"These are the values we as the Foundation live by and we should transfer them to our daily lives if we are to make a meaningful contribution to society," said Hatang.
"The past is very important as a pointer to the future," said the Chairman of the Foundation, Tokyo Sexwale, as he dismissed those who believed that it was not important to remember the past.

"We learn from the steps that others have walked in the past so that we can use these icons like Nelson Mandela as symbols; as our compasses going forward," Sexwale said South Africa today appeared to have lost its political, social and moral compass as he called for citizens to get back onto the path followed by Mandela.
"We South Africans are determined to continue to live and see through the legacy of Nelson Mandela," Sexwale said.
Mandela, South Africa's first elected black president, was widely respected for his role in fighting racism in the country, and for forgiving his former white captors after his release from prison.