Professor Muhammad Yunus at the Hector Pieterson Museum
July 7, 2009 – Professor Muhammad Yunus began his trip to South Africa with a heritage tour today, visiting some of Johannesburg’s most significant social landmarks.
The Nobel Laureate, and founder and Managing Director of Grameen Bank, is in the country to deliver the Seventh Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture. He will speak about the eradication of poverty through investing in marginalised people.
The first stop on the heritage tour was Constitution Hill.
Professor Muhammad Yunus at Constitution Hill
Constitution Hill, where South Africa’s Constitutional Court is located, is the site of one of South Africa’s most notorious prisons, No 4 Jail. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were among the political prisoners kept here at various times.
Prof Yunus was guided through Constitution Hill by the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Head of Memory, Verne Harris.
“This was a site where many people were imprisoned, including Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada and Walter Sisulu,” explained Harris.
From there the heritage tour moved on to The Green House Project. This conservatory, located in a small corner of Joubert Park in Johannesburg, is a project combining community involvement and education with environmentally friendly building principles.
Professor Muhammad Yunus at The Green House Project
“The Green House Project was started by young environmental activists who felt they needed a different medium to push environmentally friendly policies,” explained Mabule Mokhine, the programmes co-ordinator at The Green House Project.
After a quick drive through the central business district of Johannesburg, Prof Yunus went to Mandela House, Mr Mandela’s old family home.
Situated in Orlando West, a suburb of South Africa’s biggest township, Soweto, Mandela House is where Mr Mandela and his then wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela lived before Mr Mandela’s incarceration on Robben Island. The house has been turned into a museum.
Professor Muhammad Yunus at Mandela House
Prof Yunus then visited the Hector Pieterson Museum, the site at which students involved in the June 16, 1976 student uprising were gunned down by apartheid police.
“It was really great to be able to see these sites and have the history explained to me,” said Prof Yunus.
With a hectic schedule ahead of him, Prof Yunus spoke of the necessity to continue dialogue with various groups in South Africa, in particular the “youth and the business community”.
“We need to look at new ways of doing business. There is a lot of frustration at the moment with the way the old system has failed us ... No one can figure out what’s going to happen. I have been talking about my ideas for a long time, but no one was listening. Now, with the economic crisis, I should have a more sympathetic audience.”
Prof Yunus will meet Mr Mandela tomorrow at noon before giving a press conference.