Othusitse Ricky Madibela – Distinguished Desmond Tutu Fellow
By approaching difficulties with a fresh and innovative eye, Scottish-trained scientist and writer, Othusitse, has been able to find solutions where others see only problems.
His animal science and food nutrition expertise have benefited Botswana’s subsistence farmers who, through increased land use and drought, had been facing tremendous pressures in meeting their own food requirements.
Among the contributions to his local community, is Othusitse’s introduction of parasitic plants and other local crops as supplementary nutrition and feeds for livestock. This has improved the income and nutrition of the local people.
Justin Arenstein – Desmond Tutu Fellow
Justin is an internationally renowned investigative journalist and founding editor of African Eye News Service (AENS), an independent rural news service owned and managed by journalists. He is a respected anti-corruption & human rights campaigner, who has over the past seven years exposed scores of corrupt senior public service officials. Justin’s work has also awakened international editors to the value of stories from Africa’s traditionally under-reported rural areas.
He has, in addition, dedicated his time and efforts to mentoring a generation of outspoken rural journalists, many of whom are now top writers for Africa’s largest titles. Justin has grown AENS from a ‘one computer’ operation in rustic Mpumalanga to representation in 25 African countries and the United States of America.
Viniah Nyarai Mupanduki – Desmond Tutu Fellow
Viniah is the founder of the Zimbabwe Adult Learners Association, which aims to eradicate illiteracy, facilitate skills development and create a political voice for previously illiterate and disempowered women. Through this organisation, Virginia is encouraging women’s emergence as a new political and economic base. She is also persuading the government that women present a constituency that has been ignored and needs to be recognised. The organisation currently has over 40,000 members and plans are underway to introduce its model to other African countries.
Viniah’s contribution and her role in the empowerment of women in her community has also been recognised and acknowledged by an international non-government organisation that identifies and invests in social entrepreneurs.
Professor José Negrão – Desmond Tutu Fellow
Professor Negrão, a researcher in economic thinking and contributor to a multitude of academic papers, is dedicated to the fight to defend the poor. With an estimated 80% of Mozambique’s population based in the rural areas and about two thirds living in poverty, the need for appropriate land ownership policies in Mozambique is acute.
As the national coordinator of the Land Campaign, Professor Negrão was integral to the promotion of the Land Law that ensured the recognition of right for occupational land with written and oral proof being deemed security.
This has had a profound effect on the future of the rural agricultural people and has led to an improvement of the quality of life of the rural Mozambican communities.
In his role as chairman of Cruzeriro do Sul, a development research institute comprising partnerships between academics, researchers and the private sector, he has assisted in the development of an African theoretical framework for the development of the poor rural people.
Professor Ramoshebi Maboee Moletsane – Desmond Tutu Fellow
In Lesotho, a country where between 40% and 45% of the population are unemployed and only 20% of households have access to electricity, Professor Moletsane is dedicated to enhancing the lives of those most affected by poverty.
Professor Moletsane, former vice chancellor at the National University of Lesotho and director of the National Manpower Development Secretariat, has been instrumental in the building of a skills centre that provides vocational training for youth and returning mineworkers. He has also built a community secondary school and a health clinic that services about eight villages.
Professor Moletsane’s keen eye for technology and development inspired him to initiate the Solar Energy for Remote Areas programme at the beginning of 2000. The programme uses solar power to provide electricity to rural communities, thereby relieving many women and young children tasked with picking firewood from far away places. This has also been key to reducing the risk of degrading Lesotho’s natural environment.
His role at the NMDS, has given him the platform to initiate and accomplish several programmes that have benefited the communities, particularly in science and technology, skills development and education.
Dawn Hare – Desmond Tutu Fellow
Considered a legend by the disabled community of the Western Cape and well known amongst the disadvantaged communities in the Southern Peninsula, Dawn Hare’s 28years in organisation that help the disabled has not gone unnoticed.
Herself a disabled person, Dawn has been dedicated to initiating programmes that motivate, provide rehabilitation & support services and empower physically disabled people since the 1970s.
Through the years, she has raised close to R2 million to help fund organisations that service the disabled communities in Cape Town’s Fish Hoek Valley areas. Over 2000 people, thus far, have benefited.
While Dawn’s primary vision was to introduce programmes that empower the disabled to become self sufficient and independent, the spin off benefit has been that physically able members of the community have also been motivated and challenged to become equally self sufficient and productive members of the communities within which they live. Some have taken up voluntary and / or permanent positions on the committees and organisations that serve the disabled.
Like her peers in the Desmond Tutu Footprints of the Legends Leadership Awards, trying to briefly describe Dawn’s contributions to the various communities she has been involved with these past 28 years does neither her nor those who have benefited from her efforts a just service. She has been key to the advancement of the human rights, equity and social justice of the disabled many of whom have been the least recognised by society.