The Nelson Mandela Learning Centre: A Beacon of Hope in Rustler's Valley

It is open!

The Nelson Mandela Learning Centre in Naledi, a beautiful village situated in Rustler's Valley and the picturesque Maluti Mountains of the eastern Free State, near Ficksburg. 

The Learning Centre, a world-class eco-friendly centre was launched on July 27 in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, in honour of his lasting memory to building our democracy, one village at a time.

"The dream is a promise we made to our people in 1994 that we will deliver a better life to them," said Jay Naidoo on the iStart2 Show.  "Why haven't we realised this dream in the villages and the rural areas of South Africa? How do we make democracy work for the people who had so little?"

"Together we are working to rebuild the village of the 21st century. We can with very little resources deliver the hope - those pathways of hope and opportunity that Mandela stood for - that countless leaders and countless people paid with their lives - to deliver a better future to the children that follow us."

Earthrise Trust, a non-profit trust, was set up in December 2013 with the purchase of the Rustlers valley farm by three comrades, Jay Naidoo, Kumi Naidoo and Gino Govender, who had worked together as social activists over decades. The book,  “Organising Change in the 21^st Century”, written by Jay Naidoo, is to be released shortly. Read the full story here.

Mayibuye iAfrika ... Jay Naidoo, Gino Govender & Anton Chaka

"The dream is a promise we made to our people in 1994 that we will deliver a better life to them," says Jay Naidoo on the iStart2 Show. We chat to Jay, society activist Gino Govender and Naledi Village Chairperson, Anton Chaka about new horizons at Rustler's Valley, why they do what they do and the role of Art in this new movement.

Jay Naidoo: 

It is not every day that one gets the opportunity to interview one of your heroes. He has a few more gray hairs but his familiar passionate aura still surrounds him. Jay is a Former Minister in Mandela's Cabinet, founding GS of COSATU and political and social activist.

"Why haven't we realised this dream in the villages and the rural areas of South Africa? How do we make democracy work for the people who had so little? Together we are working to rebuild the village of the 21st century. We can with very little resources deliver the hope - those pathways of hope and opportunity that Mandela stood for - that countless leaders and countless people paid with their lives - to deliver a better future to the children that follow us," says Jay Naidoo. 

Why do you do what you do?

"The meaning of life is serving others. We have very little of that today. We should not give up hope. The overwhelming majority of people in South Africa are good people. We need to be organised to ensure that good prevails over the bad. We should stop just talking about it, but do something. Everyone can do something. Imagine 52 million people stand up today and say I am going to do something. From a smile to helping a village build livelyhoods and crops that they own. The only way to make it work is to work together and build the dignity of work and the pathways of hope and opportuntiy that our country needs. That is my hope". 

#HungerMustFall ...

"No child, no individual should go hungry. You can't have a democracy on an empty stomach. How do we work with people who are living on the margins of our society, when there is so much wealth that sits in the centre? People that have the wealth must realize that if they do not share, if they do not contribute to the wellbeing of everyone, then what is going to happen? The electric fences will not protect you from the anger that is out there".

On Art ...

"Our traditional culture of song and dance, our indigenous culture is what holds our society together. Art is fundamental. It is the glue that holds our society together. Ignoring our own culture and our own roots is a sad thing. We should build on the knowledge that our indigenous music come from. It creates an identity for us. The power of music is the glue that ties us and our culture together. Art, music and dance is fundamental to us succeeding as a country."

Gino Govender
Gino has served mass-based movements in South Africa, served internationally in Union and human rights organisations but now live a life of “active” retirement. As a founding member of Earthrise, he now spends his time working with his fellow trustees, the Naledi Village Committee and partners at Rustlers Valley Farm co-creating a new vision and long term future for the farm.  This provides an ideal setting and context to build and test new forms of community based organisations pursuing a just, sustainable and peaceful world.

The Dream
 
"How we could co-operate, collaborate, share and build the positive ideas of tomorrow, particularly for the young people. Build new economies, build new forms of organisations of people producing food that meets the needs of the communities. Co-creating, in a sense, the future and what that future could look like."

The Challenges

"When people are at the centre of determining their own destiny, then possibilities can exist. My sustainability depends on the services and the goods produced by other people. Science is important but culture plays such an important role in how people sustain themselves. The challenge is to get ordinary people to drive an agenda of sustainability".

Gino is a very compassionate man and believes Art is at the heart of this movement: "If Art is a popular expression of the will of the people it can be powerful."

Anton Chaka

Anton Chaka is the Naledi Village Chairperson. A humble man, but a man who is confident and happy to play his part in creating, helping and building a better life for the people of his Village.

"The main thing is to keep peace. You need to eat well and look at nutritious food. Kids have to benefit from what we are doing. I make sure that things needed to be done are done". 

"It is meant to be, to have to play my role as leader and elder of the Naledi Village," says Anton. It made me think back to the slogan "Mayibuye iAfrica." It was and is precisely a demand for the return of the land of Africa to its indigenous inhabitants. 

This message is at the very core of EarthRise's movement. Naidoo has given 40ha of the usable land to a separate entity, the Naledi Village Trust, where the workers and their families, reside in a village of that name. They are the only beneficiaries. The land is theirs to farm for their own profit.

Jay, high up on the Maluti Mountains with his friends, Sello and Thembi Hatang, some friends and  old comrades, Mandla Gxanyana and Rasigan Maharaj, in Rustlers Valley.

I drove back to Johannesburg with a song in my heart, grateful for the privilege to have spent a few days at Rustler's Valley. Thank you to the Rustler's team for inviting me in and for the opportunity to become part of one of the most exciting movements in South Africa.

To listen to the extended interviews, just click play:


Thought of the Day:

Upcoming Events:

Join us in Centurion for a celebration of indigenous music and the magic of Africa. Book your tickets here

iStart2Sing from the Mountain Tops of Rustler's Valley ...

"We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans both black and white will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world " – Nelson Mandela

Sello Hatang (CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation) shares the legacy

 of Madiba with the Naledi Village Community in Rustler's Valley.

"We say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the challenges of a sustainable world today and tomorrow, We still have a dream... It is a dream deeply rooted in the words of Nelson Mandela...

We have a dream that one day South Africa will rise up and live out the true meaning of Madiba's dream: "A world where the truth is self-evident: that all diverse people imagine a new future and a sustainable world together."

We have a dream that one day in the streets of every village. town and city our sons and daughters will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

We have a dream that one day even the World, a world sweltering with the heat of war, sweltering with the heat of climate change, will be transformed into an oasis of sustainability and peace.

We have a dream that the son of the sons of our sons will one day live in a world where they will not be affected by the greed of politicians, religious and business leaders, but by the actions of the character of leaders who create a sustainable world.

We have a dream today.

We have a dream that one day, all over the World, with its vicious extremists, with its leaders having their lips dripping with the words of division and denial; one day right here in the World, little Christian boys and girls will be able to join hands with little Muslim, Atheist, Agnostic and Hindu boys and girls as sisters and brothers.

We have a dream today.

We have a dream that one day every village, town and city shall have food, water and energy, the polluted places will be made clean, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of a united South Africa shall be revealed, and everybody shall see it together.

A new dawn beckons ...

This is our hope. This is the faith that we go back into the World with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to build together, to struggle together, to green together, to stand up for a sustainable world together, knowing that we will save this earth..

This will be the day when all the children of the World will be able to sing with a new meaning, "iStart2 sing from the mountain side..."

And if Madiba's dream is our dream this must become true. So let sustainability sing from the prodigious mountaintops of Rustler's Valley. Let sustainability sing from the mighty deserts of the Kalahari. Let sustainability sing from the diverse geography of the Cradle of Mankind, from the frightening waters of the Cape of Storms!

Let sustainability sing from the snowcapped Mountains of the Drakensberg in Kwazulu Natal...

Let sustainability sing from the curvaceous land of the Free State! Let it sing from Table Mountain to the Northwest...

But not only that; let sustainability sing from Mpumalanga to the Eastern Cape, from the Northern Cape to Mapungubwe!

Let sustainability sing from the Valley of a Thousand Hills!

Let sustainability sing from every township in Gauteng. From every province, let sustainability sing a song together.

And when this happens, when we allow a sustainable world, when we let it sing from every village and every town, from every city and every country, we will be able to speed up that day when all the children, abled and disabled, black men and white men, religious and non-religious people will be able to join hands and sing in the words of Nelson Mandela: "We have triumphed ..."
 (With Apology to Martin Luther King) 

"Rustler's Valley is sacred..."

 ... says Jay Naidoo whilst watching the community members of The Naledi Village gathering in the school classroom on a chilly Good Friday over the long weekend. A community who has become the proud owners in their own right to the 40 hectares of land housing EarthRise Mountain Lodge and the surrounding farm.

They have partnered with the non-profit EarthRise Trust to co-create a vision and strategy to develop community-driven livelihoods. Now, with exciting farming initiatives being developed and the lodge reconstruction complete, Naledi is entering a new phase of growth and development. The Naledi Village is the heart of Rustler's Valley ... 

 Japie Lephatsi and Anton Chaka, community elders in discussion with 

former Food and Allied Workers Union general secretary Mandla Gxanyana

 Anton Chaka explains the benefits of solar lights and thanks 

iStart2 and the WakaWaka Foundation 

for their generous contribution.

 The Naledi Community in Rustler's Valley starts2! 

A truly sacred place...

Follow our story and tune in to the iStart2 Show on Thursday 31 March 2016 at 17h30 for interviews with Jay Naidoo, Gino Govender and Anton Chaka to find out more about the exciting happenings at Rustler's Valley.
 
Pierre du Toit & Keitu Gwangwa host the iStart2 Show on Thursdays at 17h30. Radio Today broadcasts on 1485 MW (AM) in greater Johannesburg and countrywide on ‪#‎DStv‬ audio channel 869. Radio Today also streams globally on www.1485.org.za.

Thank you to the community of Rustler's Valley for your wonderful hospitality. We left with hope for a better, sustainable future!

Upcoming events:

We hope to see you there! 

Tickets available here

 

Tomorrow will be too late, my son ... Lucie Pagé

"We have to live within the limits of the Planet. What is so difficult to understand?" asks Lucie Pagé on the iStart2 Show this week. "Everyone wants to be happy and live in peace. What are we doing to achieve that?"

After having travelled in 53 countries, often accompanying her husband in his meetings with great leaders of this planet, discussions with activists, scientists, Nobel laureates, civil society leaders, presidents, people that are discussing the state of the planet we are leaving our children and the mountains we have to move, together, to stop its destruction in the name of profit, the book Demain, il sera trop tard, mon fils (“Tomorrow will be too late, my son” – 2014) was born. 

Lucie's book is a conversation with her son Kami who, at 21 years old only, asks terribly lucid questions about the state of the planet and forces us to reflect, "There has been a genocide of values," Kami says. 

Husband and father Jay Naidoo also joins the conversation, from the perspective of someone who has already, in a sense, changed the world by his role in the liberation of South Africa. Seven topics are covered: injustice, greed/corruption, the environment, agriculture/nutrition, religion/spirituality, values, and the role of the youth.  The critics in the media all talk of a powerful book, a cry of the heart of the mother but especially Kami’s and, through his voice, that of the youth, seeking a better world.

To listen to the podcast, some music by Philippe Elan and Katherine Jenkins and a lively discussion with Lucie, just click play:

Thought of the Day:

Listen to Radio Today this week and win copies of Lucie's book, Conflict of the Heart. We also give away a few iStart2Sing CD's, The Soul of Africa compilation with artists like Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Pops Mohamed, Karin Hougaard and other top South African musicians.

Upcoming event:
Dr Dick's Blues Review, Herringbone and Pops Mohamed

Date: 27 February 2016
Venue: iStart2 Conference & Entertainment Hub
City: Centurion
Tickets: R100 pp

See you there!

Conflict of the Heart ... Lucie Pagé

"It's not an easy country, but it is a fascinating one. I love it," says Lucie Pagé on the iStart2 Show this week.

She speaks passionately about her love for the earth and the arts. She is adamant that we have killed our values and that we need to go back and ask: "What is life about?" and "We must stop accepting bullshit. We just don't give a damn!" She's fierce and passionate about sustainability issues. 

"We have lost the plot in the World. But there is hope!" 

- Lucie Pagé

Lucie also chatted to us about joining hands across those so-called "barriers" like language, culture, race, religion, sexual and gender issues: "It is the fear of difference. How do we change?"

Lucie bares it all in her book Conflict of the Heart:
"One day, as I was hanging my washing outside, I came face-to-face with two armed men who trained their guns on me, their fingers on the trigger (Conflict of the Heart, page 139). I had great fears but I also lived great moments, perhaps the most incredible one of my career being Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as President. To live so close to this great man – he was our neighbour in Cape Town – and to have been such a close witness to his five years in the president’s seat gave me back faith in humanity."

"I wrote my first book, Mon Afrique (Conflict of the Heart) a book about the Mandela era (1990-1999) from the apartheid I lived to the birth of democracy I witnessed as a journalist, woman, White, mother of a child in shared custody between two continents, and wife of a minister, Jay Naidoo, in Mandela’s government."

To listen to the show just click play in the podcast below. If you want to be a lucky recipient of her book, pay attention to the song we play on the show: 

Thought of the Day:

Win a copy of the book 

Conflict of the Heart 

in two easy steps:

Lucie has given us five copies of her book to give away to five (5) lucky listeners. To get your hands on one of these copies, just follow two easy steps:

1) Like the iStart2 Challenge facebook page here
2) Send us an inbox message (on the page) with the name of the song we played on Lucie's show together with your name and post box particulars.


Winners to be announced on our facebook page on Thursday 28 January!


Have a wonderful week :-)

Skielik is jy vry ... Attie van Nel

"I am Afrikaans. It is my mother tongue. The first words that was prayed when I was born was in Afrikaans. It is my language. I speak it. I live it. I pray to my God in Afrikaans. I think about my future in Afrikaans. I am as Afrikaans as they come. What I am not proud about is the very strong position that it has," says Attie van Nel on the iStart2 Show. 

 "Verwoerd's greatest legacy is the Sunday morning sermon" 

- Attie van Nel

Attie feels strongly that Afrikaans is not under threat: "I don't buy this campaign to try to paint Afrikaans as a patient in ICU. It is spitting in the face of reconciliation and nation building. There is really no humility."

A man who has the ability to connect all the important issues - raising children, sport, church and others - and how it filters into racism and White privilege. We chat about how it affects the sustainability of our country.

To listen to the podcast of this energetic pastor, entrepreneur and activist, just click play:

Thought of the Day: #RacismMustFall #Afrikaans

Upcoming show:

Arriving in South Africa just after Mandela's release, French Canadian foreign correspondent Lucie Pagé fell in love with the politician Jay Naidoo. On Thursday we chat to Lucie Pagé about her book Conflict of the Heart,  the years that followed and her views on the issues facing South Africans today.

Pierre du Toit and Keitu Gwangwa host the iStart2 Show on Thursdays at 17h30. Radio Today broadcasts on 1485 MW (AM) in greater Johannesburg and countrywide on #DStv audio channel 869. Radio Today also streams globally on www.1485.org.za and 1485.mobiA different version of Skielik is jy vry by a Frenchman, Philippe Elan.

Let's all do one thing this week to create a more sustainable South Africa. Amandla!