The poorest of the poor are yet to experience the fruits of a democratic South Africa which Nelson Mandela sacrificed 60 years of his life fighting for.
That’s according to Jay Naidoo, former Minister in the stalwart’s cabinet. He was speaking at the Global Leadership Summit at the University of Free State in Bloemfontein.
Naidoo urged South Africans to stop looking for a new messiah, and look within themselves for solutions to change the live of millions of impoverished citizens.
He says South Africa is yet to deal with the trauma of past injustices which includes dispossession of land.
“We need to look inside ourselves and find that Mandela. The one that is committed to social justice and human dignity… that carries love, and compassion and generosity, so that no one in our country… that is this country that is this rich, can be left behind in poverty and joblessness,” said Jay Naidoo of Earth Rights Trust.
Students attending the event also shared their views.
“We as students of the university of the Free State, we are here cooperating and liaising with students from across the world, in exchange of ideas, in exchange of methods, processes, especially after the fees must fall… in terms of how do we continue the decolonising project within our university,” said UFS law student Mosa Moerane
“I have drawn looking into your roots, and what does that mean for you, and how you connect the past with the future and the present. Create opportunity for justice beyond just ourselves, and also looking at generational issues and the complexities and perceptions around what happened in the past – and what is happening today, and continue to grow from there,” says Latrina Denson from Mountholyok College.
