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South Africans urged to make ‘rainbow nation’ a reality  

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Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has urged South African citizens to make sure that President Nelson Mandela’s vision of creating a rainbow nation becomes a reality.

He was addressing Pretoria residents who formed a human chain at Freedom Park and at Church Square in the CBD. The human chain was to symbolise Madiba’s 67 years of liberation struggle.

Makgoba urged people to embracing Mandela’s philosophy of promoting reconciliation, togetherness, non-racial, non-sexist society in a country free of poverty and other social ills. “We need to inculcate a space to saw seeds of love and not destruction, seeds of hope and not of hopeless in this beautiful country of ours. I believe those seeds need each one of us to roll-up our sleeves and to conduct ourselves in a manner befitting of Madiba and his values. But equally in a manner that is befitting of the vision of South Africa,” says Archbishop Makgoba.

Heritage Day is a South African public holiday celebrated on 24 September.

Meanwhile the National Heritage Council CEO Advocate Sonwabile Mangcotywa has called on communities to reclaim, restore and celebrate their heritage. He was speaking at the unveiling of a memorial site in honour of Chief Stokwe Ndlela of the AmaQwathi clan in Cala in the Eastern Cape.

Mangcotywa described Stokwe as one of the unsung heroes and traditional leaders who resisted the colonial reign. Chief Stokwe is reported to have fought against British colonial forces, in what is referred to as the Qwati Rebellion of 1880-1881.

Mangcotywa says one million rand has been set aside to train people as tour guides. “National Heritage Council of SA has identified sites of historic significance. That has been done following a research to look at our history so that we rewrite it and capture those heroes and heroines like Chief Stokwe. What then we are going to do is to document the history of these icons.”

“We have already started that through books, manuscripts, documentaries. What then we are going to do is to ensure that we train people, so that these sites are turned from being abstract spaces into being strategic development nodes,”
says Mangcotywa.

Heritage Day is a South African public holiday celebrated on 24 September. On this day, South Africans across the spectrum are encouraged to celebrate their culture and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions, in the wider context of a nation that belongs to all its people.

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