SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
As the world continues to mourn the death last week of former South African President Nelson Mandela, a leading rights group in Zimbabwe has honored him as being an inspiration for human rights activism. The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) last week awarded Mandela the Human Rights Lawyer of the Year award, a day after the 95 year old global icon had passed away in Johannesburg. In honouring Mandela posthumously, the ZLHR said the anti-apartheid leader deserved the award because as a lawyer he had uplifted society by contributing to easing the suffering and oppression of the vulnerable and marginalised people. The human rights group said Mandela had been an inspiration for human rights lawyers throughout Zimbabwe and the wider African region, and was a “giant” who had fought for precious values and defended and extended people’s rights and freedoms.“Our legal profession, our country, our continent, and the world at large have been inspired by the example of the dear departed Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. We are not global powers. We do not bestow Nobel Peace Prizes and state accolades. But in our own small way, we take this opportunity to salute a fellow lawyer, to thank him for his life of public service, and to show that there are many who have taken heed of his example and action,” the ZLHR said in a statement. The award will be forwarded to the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa. The ZLHR said it would seek to establish, together with Mandela’s representatives, an annual scholarship in Zimbabwe for children who excel in academic studies, but “who may not yet had the opportunity to be inspired and assisted to possibly become the next icon in the struggle for a better society.” Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe meanwhile will be among more than 70 world leaders who are descending on South Africa this week, where a series of memorial events have been planned. This is ahead of the state funeral organised for Mandela over the weekend. Ironically, while despots like Mugabe will be there to pay their respects to a man considered to one of the last figures of moral authority in the world, the Dalai Lama will not be attending. A spokesman for the Buddhist spiritual leader said he will not attend memorial services for his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate in South Africa, saying it is “logistically impossible.” The Dalai Lama has twice been blocked from obtaining a visa to visit South Africa. He was prevented from attending a Nobel laureates’ peace conference there in 2009, and a second visa application in 2011 was eventually withdrawn by the Tibetan leader after extensive delays from the South African authorities.