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Tag: Mandela

  • ‘Mandela award will inspire me to do more for humanity’

    ‘Mandela award will inspire me to do more for humanity’

    West Africa Youth Council has conferred the Nelson Mandela leadership Award of Excellence and Integrity, with ambassador of West African Youth Role Model, on Managing Director of Dorogis International, Tolulope Fatunbi.

    The award celebrates Fatunbi’s leadership, humanitarian contributions, and commitment to youth empowerment.

    Council representative said the award is reserved for individuals whose values and service to humanity reflect the virtues of Nelson Mandela.

    He noted that Fatunbi’s record in enterprise development, youth empowerment, ethical business practice, and community impact has made him an example of transformational leadership in Africa.

    “Fatunbi joins a distinguished class of Africans, who exemplify vision, responsibility, and service,” it said.

    The council called for media collaboration, partnerships, youth initiatives, leadership development projects, and national growth programmes.

    Read Also: Ireland, Nigeria seek stronger investment partnerships

    Fatunbi said: “It is a privilege to see years of dedication and sacrifice recognised. I am honoured, and I remain committed to serving humanity.”

    He described the honour as a call to service, pledging to intensify his contributions to youth development through technology, skill training, and community engagement.

    ‘‘We will use a multimodal approach to equip young people with skills in IT, telecommunications, and mining exploration, supported by community engagement, capacity-building, and our mineral-tech expertise,” he said.

    He encouraged youths to be disciplined, resilient, and continue learning, noting knowledge is world’s chief currency.

  • ‘Mandela award will inspire me further’

    ‘Mandela award will inspire me further’

    Dr. Okikijesu Omilakin, chief executive of Tush homes and properties, a real estate firm, has pledged his commitment to work with youths. He spoke after receiving Nelson Mandela Leadership Award of Excellence and Integrity presented to him by West Africa Youth Council.

    The council said Omilakin was recognised for contributions to youth empowerment, ethical leadership, and excellence in entrepreneurship.

    Omilakin, who dedicated the award to ‘‘every young African dreaming and working to make a difference, has given hope, and inspired young Africans through service, innovation in real estate, and support for youth-driven initiatives.

    Tush homes has provided mentorship, employment, and training for young people.

    Read Also: NDDC, ministry to partner on housing schemes

    He said the award is not only a boost and encouragement to do more but also a reward for following his passion for real estate.

    Presenting the award in Lagos, the council praised Omilakin for his conduct, social impact, and commitment to values that mirror Mandela’s legacy – integrity, compassion, and leadership.

    It spotlights changemakers like Omilakin setting standards in leadership and inspiring the next generation.

    Responding, Omilakin said ‘’this award reminds me that leadership is not a title but a responsibility, a duty to inspire, to empower and to leave people better than how we found them.”

  • U.S. Mission honours 2023 Mandela Washington Fellows

    U.S. Mission honours 2023 Mandela Washington Fellows

    The United States Mission in Nigeria has officially welcomed home 57 talented young Nigerian professionals who recently returned from the Mandela Washington Fellowship at some of America’s most prestigious colleges and universities.

    The participants selected from among thousands of extremely qualified candidates represent Nigeria’s best and brightest in the areas of Business and Entrepreneurship, Civic Leadership, and Public Management.

    Speaking at the reunion conference in Lagos, U.S. Consul General Will Stevens encouraged the new fellows to persist in their efforts to bring about positive change in their communities by promoting economic growth and prosperity, strengthening democratic governance, and fostering peace and security.

     “The fellowship has ended, but you’re energised, full of ideas, and ready to leverage all the new connections you made through the programme in the United States,” Consul General Stevens told the returning fellows.

    Read Also: Tinubu’s leadership right for Nigeria, says Sani Musa

    “Don’t let up.  Continue your awesome work.  Share your experiences with your colleagues, friends, neighbors, and families and be leadership multipliers.”

    U.S. Consulate Public Affairs Officer Julie McKay noted that the reunion conference was organised to provide a platform for the new fellows to share their firsthand experiences and engage in conversations about how to effectively leverage their newly acquired skills and expanded networks.

     “We’re already invested in your success, and we’re committed to supporting you in the days ahead by providing resources that will help you to build on your exchange experiences,” McKay said in her remarks to the new Fellows.

    During the conference, the Mandela Washington Fellows compared notes on their U.S. experiences, broadened their networks, and received information on funding and professional development opportunities. At a welcome reception hosted at the Consul General’s residence, the fellows engaged U.S. Mission staff and past participants of the program, sharing their aspirations and plans to build on their U.S. experiences and have a positive impact in their local communities. 

    Since 2014 when the Mandela Washington Fellowship was launched, the U.S. government has sent 6500 young Africans to the United States to empower them through coursework, leadership training, and networking opportunities.

    Of this number, more than 550 have been Nigerians, including the 57 Fellows who just returned. Nigeria remains the largest contributor of Fellows each year.

  • Mandela’s granddaughter dies of cancer at 43

    Mandela’s granddaughter dies of cancer at 43

    South African anti-apartheid battle icon, Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter, Zoleka Mandela, has died of cancer at 43, her family announced on Tuesday.

    The novelist, who allegedly had a lengthy struggle with cancer, was admitted to the hospital on Monday as part of her continuous treatment, according to a family spokeswoman.

    “Zoleka passed away… surrounded by friends and family,”  Zwelabo Mandela said. 

    She was the child of Mandela’s youngest daughter, Zindzi Mandela, and her first husband, Zwelibanzi Hlongwane.

    The family said recent tests indicated “significant” progress in the cancer that affected her hip, liver, lung, pelvis, brain and spinal cord.

    Read Also: Mandela: An icon worth every iota of immortality

    “We mourn the loss of a beloved grandchild of Mum Winnie and Madiba,” the Nelson Mandela Foundation wrote on social media, using the name by which the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was fondly known.

    “Her work in raising awareness about cancer prevention and her unwavering commitment to breaking down the stigma surrounding the disease will continue to inspire us all.”

  • Chimamanda plants a tree for Mandela

    The doyenne of world Literature Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie made an august appearance at the Chief Newton Jibunoh-sponsored Mandela Garden of Trees in Asaba, Delta State, last Friday. Resplendent in a classy crimson dress, Chimamanda was all smiles as the acclaimed ‘Desert Warrior’ Newton Jibunoh, accorded her a befitting reception. The gathering became instantly wowed by the grand grace of the literary icon.

    Let me reveal here that when Chimamanda was starting out as a writer she had written in innocence to Jibunoh and was well encouraged.

    Now, to the heart of the matter: The late former South African President Nelson Mandela lives in Asaba where Jibunoh has bequeathed a global garden to his memory. The United Nations had in November 2009 fixed July 18 as Nelson Mandela International Day, or Mandela Day for short.

    The first UN Mandela Day held on July 18, 2010, and the great leader’s 95th birthday was marked specially in Asaba with a world press conference proclaiming the establishment of a garden of 95 trees to be known as “The Mandela Garden of 95 Trees.”

    The celebrated environmentalist and conqueror of the Sahara Desert and Chief Executive, Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE), Dr. Jibunoh partnered the Delta State government to broadcast that well over 134,000 square metres of prime land within the Asaba International Airport complex, has been designed to serve as “The Nelson Mandela Garden of 95 Trees.” It was at this blooming Mandela Garden that Chimamanda came to plant a tree.

    The conceptual design of the Mandela Garden is in the shape of the map of Africa, featuring a life-size bronze statue of Nelson Mandela, 95 trees symbolically planted as the Robben memorial, freedom mini-gardens, well-landscaped terraced fences made of hedge plants, concrete walkways, state-of-the-art restrooms, adequate parking, Nelson Mandela playground and park for children.

    Dr. Jibunoh, in his drive toward greening the environment through FADE, always had the abiding dream of planting the trees. It has been a life-long passion, culminating in the FADE Wall of Trees planted in Makoda Kano in the spirited bid to arrest desert encroachment.

    “I will run the park for the rest of my life as the keeper,” Jibunoh said in his Lagos Island Didi Museum office. “My family will have to come and visit me there. They know my passion. It helps that the project is situated at the airport. They can always fly in and fly out. I believe Asaba provides a conducive atmosphere better than Lagos, London or New York!”

    According to Jibunoh,  “We have to use Mandela to inspire people. We used to have Kwame Nkrumah. There is no other Mandela anywhere. He gave the world all he had. He went to prison for 27 years and came out with nothing. He ruled South Africa for only one term of presidency and came out with nothing. That’s the legacy!”

    For Jibunoh, the term “Charity begins at home” was done in reverse order. He was heavily involved in improving other places, notably the Sahara Desert and places like Kano and Lagos before returning to his home in Delta State. He mentions the Igbo term and name “Nkeiruka”, stating that what is ahead is greater than the things done earlier.

    An irrepressible optimist, Jibunoh believes that security challenges such as kidnapping can be solved to make Nigeria a tourist haven, starting with the Mandela Gardens in Asaba. “There are so many things to challenge the world in Nigeria,” he affirms, he said, adding that he had seen it all from the days of colonialism through the apartheid years and the Nigerian Civil War. To him, Nigeria deserves celebration for leading the charge for the freedom of Nelson Mandela and South Africa.

    “We lost Barclays Bank and British Petroleum in the Mandela fight,” he said. “Nigeria was a Frontline state. We cannot now be a minor player. This project will re-establish Nigeria as a Frontline State. Our fight was not in vain. Through the Mandela Gardens, Mandela will live forever. It will put Nigeria on a different platform.”

    Jibunoh pointed at the irony that people thought that Mandela was only fighting for black Africans, only for it to be discovered at the end that the whites benefited more. According to him, “the whites who saw him as a terrorist are now the ones benefitting from Mandela the most’.

    Adichie dwelt on the need to have a truth and reconciliation committee in Nigeria, much like Mandela did in post-apartheid South Africa. She argued that major issues, following the Biafra war had not been addressed. The unfair treatment of the Igbo galled the celebrated novelist and author of “Half of a Yellow Sun”, based on the Nigeria-Biafra war. Citing the Asaba massacre and issues such as the yet unresolved abandoned properties matter in Port Harcourt, Chimamanda avered that the country cannot hope to make much progress without redressing injustice and embracing the truth and history.

    It was indeed, a meeting of icons as Chimamanda took a shovel, dug up the ground and planted a tree to the admiration of Dr Jibunoh and the quality audience in Mandela Garden of Trees in Asaba.

  • How Mandela made Obasanjo drop his 3rd term bid — Orji Kalu

    Senate Chief Whip, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, on Thursday revealed in details the key role played by late South African leader, Nelson Mandela, to pressurise former President Olusegun Obasanjo to drop his third term presidential agenda.

    According to the former governor, the late Mandela played a key role which saw Obasanjo drop the idea of amending the Nigerian Constitution to enable him contest for a third term.

    Senator Kalu said: “I recall my personal interactions with him (Mandela), especially during our national struggle to force President Olusegun Obasanjo to drop his plan to amend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and secure an extension of his tenure.

    “Disturbed by the details, Mandela placed a call to President Olusegun Obasanjo and told him in clear terms that whatever his plans were, it was neither desirable for Africa”, he said.

    “That intervention, proved strategic to the leadership question in Nigeria at the time, leading to elections in 2007.”

    Senator Kalu made the revelation while giving a speech on “The Mandela I Know”, at the 10th commemoration of “Nelson Mandela Day” in Abuja.

    The event, which was organised by the South African High Commission in Nigeria, held at the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA).

    The South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Bobby Roet, Vice Chancellor of University of Abuja, Prof Abdul Rasheed Na-Allah, and the Deputy Vice-chancellor, Prof C.B.I Alawa, were in all attendance at the event.

    In his speech, the former Abia governor described the late Mandela as an outstanding champion of human freedom and liberty.

    Read Also: How I brought RUGA to Abia, by Orji Kalu

    He said the late African leader was an anti-apartheid crusader who sacrificed the best years of his life to secure the emancipation of his people from the “degradation and humiliation of inferiority status.”

    Kalu who revealed that Mandela was his mentor, said he was tutored and shaped into a responsible, industrious and disciplined man by the late foremost African leader, “who set a challenging example to other African leaders by retiring after a single term as South Africa’s president.”

    The Abia born politician also revealed that the late Mandela introduced him to the leadership of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), “with whom I have maintained a very robust relationship.

    “Through him, I met with President Thabo Mbeki, who is now a dear friend and brother. I also met President Kgalema Motlanthe, former Secretary of ANC. And of course, I met President Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa, who is now tasked with the responsibility of leading the great vision that Mandela had for South Africa.”

    Recall that Senator Orji Kalu had few months ago undertook a trip to South Africa where he visited three ex-Presidents, and also took part in the ANC campaign launch which saw the party winning the last presidential poll.

    Recalling his withdrawal from the Senate Deputy Presidency race, the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain said he took the step following the decision of his party.

    Senator Kalu said: “I stood down because having learnt from Mandela the dictates of party supremacy, it would amount to a betrayal of my learning to go against the party’s consensus,” adding, “Mandela had once told me how he wanted Cyril to be his deputy, but the party leadership thought otherwise, a decision Mandela actually respected.”

    On Nigeria, the Forbes-rated billionaire said the country “will fare better if politicians, irrespective of their party affiliations, respect party supremacy.”

    “That way, we will be able to build a political culture that derives its powers from the party manifesto and programmes.”

    Kalu decried the rate at which African leaders hold on to power, instead of emulating Nelson Mandela, saying “Africa today does not seem to appreciate the meaning that he (Mandela) brought to life on the continent.”

    “Mandela opted for only a single term in office, he voluntarily opted out for a second tenure. Out of office, he became more powerful and significant as a global force than he was in office. With that, he demonstrated that one does not necessarily need an endless term of office to positively impact on his society or to remain relevant.”

    Kalu added: “Africans have suffered so much under visionless and oppressive leadership that the people are looking forward to another Mandela to give them hope for tomorrow.”

  • South Africa mission, Southern Sun celebrate Mandela

    South African Mission in Nigeria, South Africa Tourism (SAT) and Southern Sun Hotel, Ikoyi joined force this year to mark the year’s Mandela Day and the birthday of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

    The International Mandela Day is celebrated to make a difference by encouraging people to devote 67 minutes of their time to undertake tasks that would bring joy and relief to the needy in the communities, thus contributing towards changing the world for better.

    In commemorating the centenary of Nelson Mandela, the  mission in partnership with the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) and the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) hosted a lecture. The mission also collaborated with the Mandela Garden, Asaba, Delta State to plant five new trees to add to the 95 already there to have 100 trees. It also engaged in the 67-minute charity work, handed over food parcels at an orphanage in Asaba.

    This year’s celebration theme was  “Be the Legacy”. Mandela would have turned 100 should he had been alive.  Madiba, as Mandela was affectionately called, was well known and respected globally as a symbol of the struggle against apartheid and all forms of racism, the icon and the hero of African liberation.

    Mandela has been called a freedom fighter, a great man, global icon and a living legend amongst other countless other names. He had been an activist, political prisoner, South Africa’s first democratically elected president, an international peacemaker and statesman and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

    As a husband and a father, Mandela sacrificed the joys of family life and of seeing his children grow up. As a young man, he missed out on normal life spent with family members and friends to fight for the cause he unshakably stood for. Most ordinary South Africans knew little about Mandela during his prison years, as the apartheid government suppressed information, and what was released was biased. Limited information about Mandela was available from the international press, anti-apartheid activist groups and Free Mandela Campaign.

    Celebrating Mandela Centenary provides a unique opportunity for people around the world to not only reflect on Mandela’s life and times, but also uphold values and principles that he steadfastly stood for, including his vision of a democratic, just and equitable society.

    Meanwhile, Southern Sun Hotel, Ikoyi, in upholding Madiba’s legacy of “making the world a better place” joined the rest of the world in livening the hearts of the under privileged with a corporate social responsibility visit to its adopted charity, The Arrows of God Orphanage in Ajah, Lagos, all in celebration of the centenary birthday of Nelson Mandela. In doing so, Southern Sun, Ikoyi donated many items, including educational textbooks, activity books, toys, educational games and inspirational books to the children at the care home.

    Adopted as the official charity of Southern Sun Ikoyi for over nine  years till date, support to the orphanage is in line with the hotel’s tradition of significantly contributing to the growth, development and service to all within its community.

  • Our Girls; Mandela; ‘Continuous Forensic Audit’

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Release the remaining Chibok Girls. Inexplicably, our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    The Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund faces a N62.3billion fraud and a $4m ministerial bribe attempt. What an insult to those companies forced by law to pay and those employees denied N62,300,000,000 in support, just like National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and its N130b or so. Every good intention crumbles into corruption dust. Why do we wait for billions to disappear, no honest person to stop it?

    Nigeria urgently needs a Pro- active Fraud Prevention Bill eg ‘Compulsory Continuous weekly Forensic Audit Bill’ for continuous forensic audit in every government Ministry, Agency,Department (MDA).

    Market fires again? Jos today, where tomorrow? No serious fire-fighting equipment or grid-plan for market fire-fighting. You say there are no jobs. Firefighting has unfilled jobs requiring recruitment of 50-100,000 firefighters nationwide!!

    Get the Mandela Lectures commemorating his 100th Birthday, especially the Obama+ Lecture and the ‘Madiba Would Have Reminded Us…’ Lecture by anti-corruption guru Prof Patrick Lumumba. Every African, African abroad with children and Africanophile worldwide must study them as Africa faces re-colonialisation from foreign commercial interests and losing its inheritance to religious and ethnic bigots and to fellow Africans stealing the commonwealth. Africans, show your wards these lectures which summarise our African condition in a falsified culture making ‘Instant Millionaires’ and ‘Instant Billionaires’. History is a ‘no no’ for many Africans, partly because they say ‘history is boring’ and history was shamelessly suppressed, politicized and twisted into Fake History.

    So the serpent which I called Ejo Eko, Lagos Snake, a python, has finally strangled Lagos, bringing Apapa to an anguished standstill and the vice president to Apapa, by helicopter viewing the 15 km long EjoEko made up of containers, trailers and tankers. This is the classic example of the evil that ‘False Federalism’ does to negate development. Shame on past and present federal governments for their insincerity to develop essential infrastructure since 1999 and the 3 ½ years currently in power manifest by such a huge disgraceful costly embarrassment. This is yet another deliberately neglected ‘under-funded’ development disastrous event compromising the National Development Plan because of trailer commercial preference over railway.

    Every new government even from the same party does a policy summersault, starves previously government approved projects of funds and undertakes painfully slow, negative contract reviews. Are such old contract reviews genuinely altruistic to save government money or to encourage the contractors to corruptly pay the new people in power? Contracts are cancelled or put on hold, paralysing and rendering useless billions of government naira belonging to citizens suffering a resultant development deficit. Witness the numerous empty-shell building sites littering Nigeria even in continuously same-party states. The disgraceful waste of the federal government secretariat pains Nigerians to the marrow as does the see-through uncompleted blocks at the Third Mainland Bridge started by Babatunde Fashola. But Fashola should have been pragmatic enough to complete one functioning block rather than leave the skeleton of 10 blocks haunting and taunting Lagosians. The project may never be completed because of differing funding priorities, political or personal differences, or questioned contracting specifications from the same party. Such issues like the ‘Problem, Cost and Prevention of Uncompleted Policies and Projects’ should be studied by political and social scientists and taught to politicians by their parties. States and FG should have 4-year plans from Day 1 and deliver in four year terms.

    It is unfortunate that developmental of Port Harcourt and Calabar and ‘Four-Track Cargo Train Container Evacuation’ from the port demanded for an international port have been corruptly rejected and frustrated, yet Nigeria quickly built trains running around Kaduna and Kano – ‘Corruptly Misplaced National Priorities’. Even Lagos still has not completed its internal railway, a project first terminated by Buhari in 1984. Will the truck owners, fearing loss of business monopoly, keep stalling Nigeria’s ‘Southern Port Railway Policy’ which is no threat, just a development and a better managed transport system? The truck owners refuse to pay for parking in holding bays just like the cow herders’ bosses refuse to pay for food on the herders’ route, unleashing the terrorist monster. What is the contribution of port corruption, multiple taxation and many security services to the gridlock? Closing the Third Mainland Bridge will compound the ‘Hell on earth’ woes of commuting Lagosians. Where is the Fourth Mainland Bridge?

    Nigeria is at several battle crossroads. The Apapa/ Tin Can Cross Roads, Corruption/ anti-corruption, Violence/Nonviolence, Governance/ Good Governance, Who To Vote For/ Who Not To Vote For. Worldwide politicians and professionals abroad are being prosecuted and jailed for corruption or sexual or policy indiscretions in the past. Nigerian politicians and professionals are no saints. Interrogate candidates for office in politics and government. Whitewashing corruption in no way cleanses the corrupt. Yes, the stolen money gives political clout but should disqualify and imprison politicians. The 2019 election must become a watershed election against money and moral policy corruption. Politicians consume a sizable budget proportion for few ‘I love Nigeria’ decisions. Too many have been in too many parties. Waking up daily, they cannot remember ‘Today’s Party’ and cannot be taken seriously as ‘Nigeria Political Policy Change Agents’. Political prostitution is alive and well with the expected diseases of Corruption, Underdevelopment, Wasted Generations, Economic Migration and now Internally Displaced Persons.

    • Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16. 

  • Imprisonment: Bill Cosby likens self to Mandela

    Having been found guilty of three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault, embattled American television star, Bill Cosby is said to have invoked the name of Nelson Mandela; liking his situation to that of the former South African president’s experience as a political prisoner. Cosby reportedly says he’s preparing himself mentally for incarceration stemming from his stunning conviction on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman.

    “This is what they wanted,” the 80-year-old Cosby reportedly told the New York Post’s Page Six column in an interview following his conviction last week by a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, jury.

    The column, published Saturday evening, says Cosby repeatedly spoke to Page Six over the past year with the agreement that nothing could be shared publicly during the legal proceeding.

    In an earlier interview, Cosby reportedly told Page Six that he has thought about what Mandela endured in prison to prepare himself for going to “that place,” meaning prison.

    “But, you know, I think back to the time when Camille and I went to visit Nelson Mandela in South Africa,” Cosby said, referring to his wife of 54 years, Camille Cosby. “He was a free man, but I remember when we met him at Robben Island where he had been in a prison for all of those years. I sat in that cell where he lived, and I saw how he lived . . . what he had to eat to live and what he went through.

    “So, if they send me to that place, then that’s what they will do, and I will have to go there.”

    But Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s spokesman, denied the comedian gave an interview to Page Six.

    “He never did that,” Wyatt told ABC News on Sunday. “That’s totally false. He never gave Page Six an interview.”

    In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for the New York Post said, “The Post stands by its story.”

    On Thursday, the Montgomery County jury in Norristown found Cosby guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand – a former director of operations for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, where Cosby had been a trustee and major financial donor.

    Constand testified at both of Cosby’s trials that he gave her a powerful drug that rendered her dizzy, weak and unable to defend herself as he sexually assaulted her in 2004 at his home in the Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park.

    Last week’s verdict came about 11 months after Cosby’s first trial ended in a mistrial when a jury could not reach a unanimous decision after deliberating six days.

    Unlike the first trial, prosecutors were allowed to call five other women to testify that Cosby assaulted them in the same manner.

    Under conditions of his release, Cosby was ordered to stay confined to his home except for appointments with his attorneys or doctors. He must also wear a GPS ankle bracelet so authorities can monitor his whereabouts.

    In an interview with ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Friday, Cosby’s publicist, Ebonee Benson, compared the comedian’s conviction to the fate of Emmett Till, the 14-year old child brutalized and murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman.

    “This became a public lynching,” Wyatt told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in the same interview. “The South came to the East.”

    Meanwhile, Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden said the guilty verdict on three counts of aggravated indecent assault against the 80-year-old TV icon reflected the bravery of victim Andrea Constand, the other accusers who testified as “prior bad acts” witnesses and the jury in Pennsylvania.

    “When the verdict was read, I was just filled with awe and so excited and so happy,” Feden told CNN in a phone interview one day after Thursday’s conviction.

    “I was so happy for Andrea. I was so proud of her. And I was so happy for victims just everywhere. … It was a very awesome message to victims.”

    The jury agreed that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted Constand at his home in a Philadelphia suburb in 2004. At the retrial, five other women testified that Cosby had also drugged and assaulted them decades ago.

    Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison on each count, but he is likely to serve them concurrently.

  • Winnie Mandela dies at 81

    Winnie Mandela, former wife of Late South African President, Nelson Mandela is dead.

    According to her Personal Assistant, Zodwa Zwane‚ Winnie died on Monday at Netcare Milpark Hospital‚ Johannesburg after a long illness.

    “It is with profound sadness that we inform the public that Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela passed away at the Netcare Milpark Hospital‚ Johannesburg‚ South Africa on Monday April 2‚ 2018.

    She died after a long illness‚ for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year. She succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones,” Zodwa stated.

    In her twilight years, Madikizela-Mandela, who died aged 81, had frequent run-ins with authority that further undermined her reputation as a fighter against the white-minority regime that ran Africa’s most advanced economy from 1948 to 1994.

    During her husband’s 27-year incarceration, Madikizela-Mandela campaigned tirelessly for his release and for the rights of black South Africans, suffering years of detention, banishment and arrest by the white authorities.

    She remained steadfast and unbowed throughout, emerging to punch the air triumphantly in the clenched-fist salute of black power as she walked hand-in-hand with Mandela out of Cape Town’s Victor Vester prison on Feb. 11, 1990.

    For husband and wife, it was a crowning moment that led four years later to the end of centuries of white domination when Mandela became South Africa’s first black president.

    For Madikizela-Mandela, the end of apartheid marked the start of a string of legal and political troubles that, accompanied by tales of her glamorous living, kept her in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

    Blamed for the killing of activist Stompie Seipei, who was found near her Soweto home with his throat cut, she was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping and assaulting the 14-year-old because he was suspected of being an informer.

    Her six-year jail term was reduced on appeal to a fine.

    She and Mandela separated in 1992 and her reputation slipped further when he sacked her from his cabinet in 1995 after allegations of corruption.

    The couple divorced a year later, after which she adopted the surname Madikizela-Mandela.

    Appearing at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set up to unearth atrocities committed by both sides in the anti-apartheid struggle, Madikizela-Mandela refused to show remorse for abductions and murders carried out in her name.

    Only after pleading from anguished TRC chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu did she admit grudgingly that “things went horribly wrong”.

    In its final report, the TRC ruled that Madikizela-Mandela was “politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the Mandela United Football Club” (MUFC).

    Four years later, she was back in court, facing fraud and theft charges in relation to an elaborate bank loan scheme.

    “Somewhere it seems that something went wrong,” magistrate Peet Johnson said as he sentenced her to five years in jail, later overturned on appeal. “You should set the example for all of us.”

    Born on Sept. 26, 1936, in Bizana, Eastern Cape province, Madikizela-Mandela became politicised at an early age in her job as a hospital social worker.

    “I started to realize the abject poverty under which most people were forced to live, the appalling conditions created by the inequalities of the system,” she once said.

    Strikingly attractive and with a steely air – her given name, Nomzamo, means ‘one who strives’ – the 22-year-old Winnie caught the eye of Mandela at a Soweto bus-stop in 1957, starting a whirlwind romance that led to their marriage a year later.