Thousands walk and run in remembrance of Madiba

HOUGHTON – The Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton talk all things Mandela at the conclusion of the 2017 Mandela Remembrance Walk and Run.

Tshepiso Mametela

December 13, 2017

Participants of the 2017 Mandela Remembrance Walk and Run hold up 'Remember Madiba' posters.

In memory of Nelson Mandela, thousands turned up at the Union Buildings in Pretoria for the fourth edition of the Mandela Remembrance Walk.

The event on 10 December, organised by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, the Gauteng provincial government and the City of Tshwane, for the first time, included a 10km run. This prompted organisers to rebrand it to the Nelson Mandela Remembrance Walk and Run, in addition to a 5km walk event.

Participants make their way along the route of the fourth annual Nelson Mandela Remembrance Walk and Run in Tshwane.

The 5km walk was first held in 2014, as a way of exemplifying what the former statesman strived for during his life, and to act as a medium for preserving his memory and legacy through sport. The event is the first in a series of Mandela centenary celebrations in the run-up to the icon’s 100 years old birthday celebrations next year.

“Over the past four years, the event has been held to ensure that people have a collective effort to remember Madiba, and I think that everybody who came found the opportunity to do that,” said Luzuko Koti, spokesperson for the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Koti added that the event once again played a crucial role in expanding on the foundation’s objectives in preserving the legacy of Madiba. He explained the importance of the route runners and walkers took and what it meant for the preservation of the country’s history.

A group of youngsters play their part in remembering Madiba at the 2017 Mandela Remembrance Walk and Run at the Union Buildings in Tshwane.

The route took participants passed a number of historical and important heritage and architectural sites including the Union Buildings where Mandela’s body lay in state, the Kgosi Mampuru Prison, the State Theatre as well as Lilian Ngoyi Street.

“For the foundation, the event was important from the perspective of objectives, which were to ensure that there was a point of gathering for South Africans to come together,” said Koti.

“The route that was taken is the same route that Madiba’s body travelled in his last days before being laid to rest in the Eastern Cape. That route is important from a historical and heritage perspective. Taking participants through it was partly to share the historical relevance of its various sites in the context of the history of the country.”

Hundreds of participants hold up posters with the words, ‘Remember Madiba’, at the start of the 5km walk and 10km run of the Nelson Mandela Remembrance Walk and Run at the Union Buildings in Tshwane.

Did you take part in the walk or run event? Share your pictures with us on the Rosebank Killarney Facebook page.