Mandela Day – Opportunity to Demonstrate True Values in Business and Society

Business Should be More Than Profit and Society More than Show

South Africa should be in a better place than we find ourselves in today, with another week passing that brought the society which was once applauded by the world as the birthplace of unmatched unity and hope, another shock of corruption and another promised commission of enquiry instead of a report of how job creation, homelessness, poverty and infrastructure development has progressed.

There is however , a great groundswell within South African societies and amongst many businesses that are expressing they are simply tired of the corruption, crime and destruction of the promise of a rainbow nation of hope and progress toward prosperity for all.

This energy can be felt everywhere you go across the country, with people wanting change for better and not empty political rhetoric. They want to see prosperity not poverty and unity and not politically heated divicive politics. People want to see progress not promises unkept, they want real leadership not lacking in integrity and resolve.

Today marks the 16th official International Mandela Day as established by the United Nations in 2009, recognising the core values of Nelson Mandela’s legacy, where many South Africans and businesses are taking out some time in their work day to do some good in their communities, in memory of one of Africa’s greatest leaders.

It is the duty of all business and community leaders to share in that vision of a better future and to ensure there is a permanent departure from a country, barely experiencing any economic growth, and that cannot provide decent healthcare, or protection for vulnerable children. South Africa is a country that has lost its way and needs a drastic correction of course if it is to have the future that Nelson Mandela envisioned.

Lead By Example not Words:

Two recent experiences have provided encouragement for the prospect of purpose being driven by business in South Africa. These exemplify that even small efforts can turn into big changes and these are the stories that we need to be amplifying in our world today.

Children are Our Future:

Fifteen years ago, a small media agency in Johannesburg, Alphabet Soup, started a project that has grown in magnitude and touched thousands of lives in the process.

Alphabet Soup founder and director, Nikki Lewin, called up a few close friends and business associates in 2010, just before Mandela Day and said we need to do something. The group got together and made sandwiches with no clear plan of what to do with them, other than to go give them to people who were in need. They then drove around Johannesburg and dished these out wherever they found those in need, in shelters and on the street.

That small beginning has developed into an annual advertising and media event that has to-date collected and distributed tens-of-thousands of books amongst other items and distributed these to community charity, orphanages, childcare facilities and schools in less fortunate communities.

This year, Alphabet Soup’s plan for Mandela day was fully focussed on a children’s charity, Hotel Hope, which runs various homes in which orphans and abandoned children are fully incorporated into families and given love, care and hope. Hotel Hope Ministries is run by Oliver Quambusch who expressed his desire to see more people in the country experiencing what he described as a blessing of taking on a child adoption.

Truckloads of cleaning chemicals and equipment, baby formula, nappies, and other essential supplies were collected today, that should provide enough for Hotel Hope to not have to buy any such supplies for the next year.

This is true purpose and community collaboration focussed on giving our children and our society a better future.

Preserving The Past:

The Nelson Mandela Foundation is based in Houghton, Johannesburg, and is a Non-Profit Museum and educational centre. The foundation building also contains an extensive archive of Nelson Mandela’s personal goods, writing, artwork, journals and other historic pieces that all tell a story of the evolution of the great African leader.

The significance of this archive cannot be stressed enough. Verne Harris the archivist, and Head of the Memory Programme at the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Centre of Memory and Dialogue, shared a littany of fond memories of Nelson Mandela as he guided a group of people through the newly restored archive vault . Included were his personal books of letters he wrote while in prison as well as his Nobel Peace Prize and many other personal items including his Methodist church Membership card.

It is truly a remarkable experience that should be preserved, not just for the sake of preservation, but that it explores our own humanity in a meaningful and candid way. It was fascinating to hear of Mandela’s struggles within himself, and how he had accepted what had happened to him because it had led to the free democratic society that he had hoped for.

Stories of his having to deal with his own Male biases in his early years and much more, are not only revealing but provide a great opportunity for reflection.

Corporates Stepping Up

The Archive vault, however was recently put at risk when the sophisticated climate control system, that helps to preserve the papers, failed and the foundation did not have the funding to replace it.

In a step of faith, the foundation reached out to corporate companies to assist and Telkom and Open Serve happily stepped up to provide a complete new climate control system that will keep Mandela’s valuable written history intact for many new generations to come.

These actions are the essence that keeps the hope of a nation alive and don’t need to be applauded but certainly need to be replicated every day. If businesses across Africa and each person with the means to do so, would every day make a small difference, there is no limit to the abundance of hope and growth we could all bring into a world desperate for new hope.