SA to host first ever peace conference

CAPE TOWN - Nobel laureates from each continent will attend the first ever peace conference -- endorsed by the Norwegian Nobel Peace Committee -- in Johannesburg on March 27.

The conference will focus on anti-racism and xenophobia, soccer as a political tool to generate peace and harmony, and the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup and the legacy it would leave behind in South Africa and the continent, the organising committee said in a statement.

Conference chief patron and 2010 Local Organising Committee chairman Irvin Khoza, said: “We have a huge responsibility to leave a legacy after the World Cup, and with this conference I hope we can focus and stress what we need to do in South Africa and in Africa to keep a country and continent in peace and harmony.

“There is no doubt that sport and soccer are playing, and need to play a role in this.

“Soccer has played a huge role in bringing unity to South Africa and now more than ever we must show our responsibility as a nation, as a soccer family, and as a host of the World Cup.

“The event must be the most peaceful World Cup in its history with people from all nations inter-mingling in harmony as guests of South Africa,” Khoza said.

Last year a South African delegation led by former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Chief Mandla Mandela visited Oslo, Norway, to officially hand over the invitation to the Nobel Peace Committee.

The invitation was signed by President Kgalema Motlanthe and the three living South African laureates -- Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, former president FW de Klerk, and Nelson Mandela himself.

The Nobel Committee accepted the invitation and would attend the conference in what would be the committee’s first ever official visit to an event outside Norway, the statement said.

Since then, other Nobel Peace Prize winners and other special guests had been invited to participate in the event.

Confirmed participants so far included the Dalai Lama, and the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari.

Co-hosts at the gala dinner would be actress and newly appointed United Nations Peace Ambassador Charlize Theron, and actor Morgan Freeman, who will play the role of Nelson Mandela in a movie about his life.

“We are honoured and privileged to host an event of this magnitude and calibre of people involved,” Khoza said.

Laureates attending the conference will conclude their visit by attending the Nelson Mandela Challenge match at the re-opening of the Royal Bafokeng Stadium where Bafana Bafana will host Norway.

- Sapa