The City of Cape Town was honoured to be invited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation and to congratulate the work the foundation has done in building a culture of hope, which aligns in many ways with the vision of Cape Town as a City of Hope.
City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Alderman Theresa Uys represented the City at the gala dinner held at Century City Conference Centre on Saturday, 15 July 2023.
The foundation is one of Nelson Mandela’s three official legacy organisations and was founded in 2003 in partnership with the Rhodes Trust.
Its purpose is to build exceptional leadership capacity in Africa.
The foundation funds and empowers young Africans who aspire to use their talents to serve their societies and the African continent. This is done by providing a postgraduate scholarship for young leaders to study in South Africa and participate in a residential Leadership Development Programme. The foundation’s programme is built on Nelson Mandela’s belief that leadership begins with inner transformation, and the founding principles of reconciliation, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
According to the foundation’s founding principles, the partnership with the Rhodes Trust was seen as an: “act of reconciliation and, specifically, reparation: a way to return some of Cecil John Rhodes’s wealth to its origins in Africa. Mr Mandela’s intention was to ‘close the circle of history’ by utilising Rhodes’s resources for the advancement of Africa, helping to address the inequalities that result from the grave legacies of colonialism and apartheid.
The purpose of The Mandela Rhodes Foundation is to build exceptional leadership capacity in Africa. To this end, it funds and empowers young Africans who aspire to use their talents to serve their societies and our continent.
The Mandela Rhodes Foundation provides a highly competitive postgraduate scholarship for young African leaders to study in South Africa and participate in a residential Leadership Development Programme.
More than 622 Mandela Rhodes Scholarships have been awarded to talented young leaders from 33 African countries.
‘We support the work the foundation does and have much respect for the success it has achieved in providing opportunities for the youth in Africa over the years. The City of Cape Town has also committed itself to providing hope to various young and ambitious individuals in the city. Over this last financial year alone, we have provided training and development opportunities to 1 053 individuals. This includes 750 external trainee and bursary opportunities, and 303 apprentices. The City will continue in its efforts to advance the youth in Cape Town by prioritising those in need of aid to further their studies in order to provide them with hope and a future,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Alderman Theresa Uys.
