Media Advisory: Piketty’s arrival in South Africa is delayed
Date: 30 September 2015
From: Neeran Naidoo, Director: Communications & Outreach
Professor Thomas Piketty who addresses the 13th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, unfortunately, could not board his flight out of Paris to Johannesburg late last night as he did not have sufficient pages in his passport.
We are currently investigating all the options to get Professor Piketty to South Africa, including applying for emergency travel documents.
At this stage, the lecture at UCT will be conducted via satellite link from France. We’re also looking at revising our programme of engagement with media, civil society organisations, government and the academic community who partnered with the Foundation to host Professor Piketty.
“We are disappointed at these unfortunate turn of events and apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment this has caused to our partners and supporters. At this stage we are going ahead with plans for the Lecture on Saturday 3 October 2015. We expect Piketty in Johannesburg tomorrow morning,” said Sello Hatang, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
We will keep the media informed about further developments during the course of the day.
End
For further details contact:
Neeran Naidoo
Director of Communications, Nelson Mandela Foundation
082 994 0349