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Madiba’s focus on human rights remains key lesson: Obama

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Former US president Barack Obama has said in his Nelson Mandela Lecture that Madiba’s focus on human rights remains a key lesson for the world.

Obama was speaking at a packed Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg Wednesday afternoon.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and former first lady Graca Machel were among those attending.

Obama told the crowd that Mandela understood as he stood in the Apartheid dock in 1964 that human rights, including equality of all peoples are universal and non-negotiable.

Obama has cautioned against those who claim that these are simply western ideas.

He says: “More than a quarter century since Madiba walked out of prison I still have to stand here at a lecture and devote some time to say black people, white people, Asian people, American people women and men, gays and straights, we are all human and our differences are superficial. We should treat each other with care and respect.”

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