PRESIDENT ZUMA OFFICIATES AT NATIONAL OR TAMBO CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS IN MBIZANA

The year 2017 was declared the Year of OR Tambo by government to mark the centenary birthday of Mr Tambo and to remember his principled leadership and ideals, which inspired many liberation struggle and anti-colonialism activists not only in South Africa but across the continent and the world.

On Friday, 27 October, President Jacob Zuma officiated at the OR Tambo centenary national celebrations to honour the legacy and life of the liberation struggle icon, African humanist and the longest-serving president of the governing party, Oliver Reginald Tambo, in his hometown of Mbizana, in the Eastern Cape.  

Mr Tambo was born in the Nkantolo village in Mbizana in the Eastern Cape on 27 October 1917 and he sadly passed away on 24 April 1993, aged 75, after he suffered a stroke.

President Zuma has defined the centenary celebrations as one of the most significant occasions for the country and the African continent and encouraged South Africans to draw lessons from Mr Tambo's life, leadership and to understand the qualities that made him one of the most internationally respected leaders and founding father of the democratic South Africa.
"On this occasion, we should remember and honour a life of a patriot, a solid and principled leader that sacrificed everything and endangered the lives of his family to liberate South Africa and African people from colonialism and imperialism. As we celebrate the life of this liberation struggle giant, we should also draw lessons from OR Tambo's exemplary leadership and advance his ideals and his believes in a peaceful, equal, non-racial and non-sexist democratic South Africa," said President Zuma.

"This occasion should further remind all South Africans of where we come from as a country and also encourage all of us to preserve and advance the progressive ideals of OR Tambo, which were centred around the struggle for justice and equal social and economic rights of all our people."

President Zuma characterised Mr Tambo as a visionary and a true African humanist who was loved by many on the continent and who shaped the foreign policy of the democratic South Africa as well as laid a foundation as the foremost diplomat and highly respected leader during a difficult time in the country's history.

"Mr Tambo is respected throughout the world as a true internationalist and an embodiment of the highest values. He is recognised as an eminent leader who succeeded in mobilising his people and the international community to the national cause of South Africa and to the international cause of fighting racism, xenophobia and the consolidation of an international human rights movement," he said.
 
|+| Ubuntu News Flash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ShZYQVMMh8

|+| <- Zurück zu: Newsarchiv