The United Nations’ (UN) 2021 Champions of the Earth and Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley will be the speaker for the 20th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation announced on Friday that Her Excellency Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, was the speaker for the 20th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, which will be held in eThekwini, November 2022.
The lecture is expected to take place in eThekwini in solidarity with the people of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape who were struck with severe rains and catastrophic floods in April.
The foundation said the lecture is a unique platform to drive debate on significant social issues and that the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture is an important event on the foundation’s calendar.
“It encourages the public, both local and international to enter into dialogue, often about intractable social issues we face as a society today. The theme for the 20th Lecture will explore issues of climate change and food insecurity underpinned by our social bonding praxis,” the Nelson Mandela Foundation said.
In April 2022, heavy rains and catastrophic floods wreaked havoc on South Africa's east coast, killing more than 400 people and destroying thousands of homes and critical infrastructure in parts of the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. According to World Weather Attribution, the amount of rainfall experienced was 4%-8% more intense than previously experienced as a direct result of global warming.
"Her Excellency Mia Mottley was recently crowned a Champion of the Earth by the United Nations Environmental Programme for her incredible work in raising the alarm on how the crisis of climate change poses on vulnerable developing states," said Sello Hatang, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
"The foundation has been following Her Excellency's work for a few years. The impact of her work became even more significant for us following the devastating impact of floods in the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal.”
Hatang added that the flood relief efforts taught South Africans that their communities are in need of sustainable solutions to deal with issues of climate change.
“I do not doubt that we need to come together to find sustainable solutions to the desolation climate change is having on nations of the global south,” Hatang said.
The 19th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture was delivered by former International Criminal Court prosecutor Madame Fatou Bensouda and the foundation said the date and venue for the 20th Nelson Mandela Annual lecture will be announced soon.