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Madiba slams apartheid cases
25/08/2003 13:49 - (SA)
Cape Town - Former president Nelson Mandela has criticised apartheid lawsuits against South African companies in foreign courts, saying South Africans do not need "outside interference".
He was speaking on Monday at a function in Cape Town where De Beers chairperson Nicky Oppenheimer formally announced the hand-over of the historic Rhodes Building in the city centre to the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
De Beers is one of several South African companies that have been targeted in multibillion-rand claims in United States courts for its role in the apartheid era.
Standing alongside Oppenheimer, Mandela said President Thabo Mbeki and his government had come out "clearly and unequivocally" on the issue of apartheid reparation suits against South African companies.
"South Africans are competent to deal with issues of reconciliation, reparation and transformation among themselves without outside interference, instigation or instruction.
Cecil John Rhodes 'would have approved'
"We have dealt with our political transition in that manner and we are capable of dealing with other aspects of our transformation in similar ways."
The six-storey Rhodes House, a stone building completed in 1902, is to be the headquarters of the fledgling Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
Mandela said it was a "significant initiative" with the broader framework of South Africans taking responsibility for the transformation of their society.
"I am sure Cecil John Rhodes would have given his approval to this effort to make the South African economy of the early 21st century appropriate and fit for its time," he said.
Oppenheimer said the building had been an important place in De Beers' life for many years, and many of the early De Beers board meetings had taken place there.
"What is particularly nice is that... without De Beers there would have been no Rhodes scholarships, because what Rhodes actually gave to the Rhodes Trust was shares in De Beers at the time."
Want to make a 'real intervention'
Mandela Rhodes Foundation CEO Shaun Johnson said the foundation was set up in 2002 when the United Kingdom-based Rhodes Trust, which administers the famous scholarships, decided to redirect some of its resources to South Africa, where Rhodes's wealth originated.
He said the foundation would be trying to make a "real intervention" in capacity-building in South Africa.
He had been given the task of developing a strategic plan.
"We have huge hopes for what this foundation can achieve," he said.
- SAPA
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