Mayor of Nereto, the honourable Sergio Moroni, first secretary Mr Zweli Silangwe

It is indeed a great privilege for me, both personally and as the Executive Mayor of Buffalo City Municipality, to stand before you today to accept this outstanding honour on behalf of Dr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and the people of South Africa.

I bring warm greetings to you from the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, which is Nelson Mandela's birthplace and indeed, the birthplace of many of South Africa's greatest leaders. It is a place which has been a cultural and ethnic melting-pot for centuries, where wars were fought and where peace has been made. It is also a place full of opportunity and promise.

We are extremely proud as a city, as a province and of course as a nation of the international recognition afforded to Dr Mandela by universities, by cities and by countries across the world. We know that we have been blessed with the gift of a life of exceptional historical significance and stature.

Dr Mandela was himself born in a small village, and grew up in humble circumstances in a province where large numbers of people still live in poverty.

It therefore seems appropriate that a village such as Nereto, which has perhaps been less directly affected by the consumerist culture of the urbanizing world, should see fit to assert its place in this world, to affirm our interconnectedness and our common humanity, by conferring this honour on someone who is both a humble village child as well as an international citizen.

We know that we are increasingly part of a global village, that we are interdependent, that what is happening in the Amazon rain forests, the factories of China, the war-rooms of the Pentagon or even the mountain caves of Afghanistan can have an impact on all of us.

We live in a world where many people can now easily and instantly communicate across continents, where we are able to circle the globe in one day, a world in which we can hurt each other or help each other.

We also live in an unequal world, where the gap between the First World and the least developed countries grows by the day. We believe that we should do all in our power to reach out to each other, to understand each other and to share in the resources of our world, as we build a better tomorrow for all of our children. This has been well exemplified in the life of Nelson Mandela.

In accepting this great honour, we are doubly honoured that our city and our province have been chosen to be the continental home of the sculpture of "Multi-cultural Man" by Francesco Perilli, who we believe hails from your village.

The sculpture affirms the fact, as Dr Mandela said, that "we might have differences, but we are one people with a common destiny, although we have different cultures, races and traditions."

We accept this gift in deep appreciation on behalf of the African continent, and we take it as a gesture of extraordinary significance in the development of our city as an integral part of the global village.

It is a great encouragement to us that there are people in every corner of the globe who share the vision of a united and peaceful world symbolized by Nelson Mandela.

We are deeply moved to stand now together with Toronto (in Canada), Sarajevo (in Yugoslavia) and Changchum (in China) where the three other statues are placed, as a continental link in the chain of human solidarity.

Together with the Board of Heroes' Park, who have been instrumental in establishing a relationship with you, we are looking forward to welcoming you to our city in December for the formal handing over of the sculpture.

While we have many monuments honouring moments of colonial significance in our province, for a long time we have been painfully aware that there are not many visible signs of our indigenous history and heritage, or which celebrate our common humanity.

They have therefore been working very hard to create a space that will do justice to the international importance of the gift, and are developing a Garden of African Heritage on our sea-front in which the statue will stand. In this garden a "Ringing Stone" will be placed, which also has a great significance in the spiritual and cultural history of indigenous Africans.

Mr Mayor, and the people of Nereto: some may think that there is little that you as a community can do to change the world. But we know from the Biblical story of the five loaves and two fish that sharing the little one has can multiply our communal blessings.

In this spirit, the spirit of one world, on behalf of the people of Africa, the people of South Africa, the people of the Eastern Cape Province and most particularly, the people of Buffalo City, we thank you for your generosity and the great honours that you have bestowed on us and on the father of our free nation, Nelson Mandela.

ENDS.

Zintle Peter
EXECUTIVE MAYOR