DEAR Editor,-
Congress of the People (COPE) strongly urges government and all media houses to use the period between April 25 and May 25 to focus attention sharply on our inextricable links with Africa; and to make South Africans conscious of the importance of seeing ourselves as Africans and of being from Africa.
The need for us to be properly reconstructed Africans has never been more important than now. On May 25, schools, colleges and universities can arrange for students to wear African attire and take part in a two-hour programme celebrating our ‘Africanness’. The Department of Education can provide fact sheets and ideas for schools which they can use in whichever way they feel appropriate.
Offices and work places can also do their bit to mark this important day. The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), in conjunction with ten partners, will be holding its fifth African Unity for Renaissance conference and Africa Day celebrations in Pretoria from May 22nd to 25th.
The media must cover this conference extensively so that South Africans can get involved in the discourse that will take place there. COPE believes that every university and every college in South Africa should link up with this conference so that it has optimal reach amongst South Africa’s young intellectuals.
COPE would also like to see the Millennium Declaration being fully aligned with the National Development Plan. We can no longer defer implementing the NDP and no longer delay becoming better attuned to being Africans in Africa, whatever our hue or race. The Irish celebrate Africa Day in a way that disgraces us. This cannot be.
After the latest xenophobic outbreak and the extent of ‘Afrophobia’ we have been witnessing, we need to use Africa Day, each year, to ensure that South Africans are very aware of our ties to Africa and the strong bonds we should have with fellow Africans.
Just as we are all proud to be South Africans, we should all be equally proud to be Africans.
MOSIUOA LEKOTA
COPE
