The following news release was issued by the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas on 3 October 2013:
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas is pleased to honour President Nelson Mandela as the 2013 Dole Leadership Prize recipient. President Mandela’s great-grandson, Luvoyo Mandela, will accept the award at an event on Sunday 27 October 2013 at 4pm. The $25 000 prize will be awarded to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“I can’t think of anyone more deserving of the 10th anniversary Dole Leadership Prize than President Nelson Mandela,” said Dole Institute Director Bill Lacy. “He’s the perfect example of an individual who fought for justice through the political system in place. He truly made a difference.”
President Mandela is widely accepted as one of the most significant black leaders in the world and became a symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength in South Africa. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom. Instead he fought for justice through political action and became the first president of South Africa.
“Luvoyo Mandela was selected by Mrs Graca Machel, President Mandela’s wife, to receive the award on behalf of his great grandfather,” Lacy said. “He was educated in the United States and will speak to President Mandela’s legacy and historical significance.”
Luvuyo Mandela is a social entrepreneur developing an education fund along with a consulting product to service the development needs of South Africa. Luvoyo is applying his learning from the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) industry to develop reliable, manageable and sustainable interventions that enhance corporate social enrichment and responsibility solutions.
Luvoyo is an Ambassador of Cheesekids for Humanity, a community service facilitation organization that creates outlets for people to give back to their neighboring communities. He believes in using unconventional avenues that will end in different people enjoying and sharing common experiences, making the necessary change for the good, inevitable.
The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory was inaugurated by President Mandela in September of 2004. It provides public resources on his life through archived materials and creates dialogue around critical social issues.
“The Memory Centre’s work is very similar to the Dole Institute’s in terms of archival materials and public programming,” Lacy continued. “It’s the perfect place to put our $25 000 award to work.”
The Dole Leadership Prize is awarded annually to an individual or group whose public service leadership inspires others. This is the second time the Dole Leadership Prize has been awarded to an organisation whose mission includes preserving and promoting a historical legacy in the form of archival collections. The 2010 Prize award funded a project to develop online accessibility to the records of Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II, housed at Texas Women’s University.
Other winners of the Dole Leadership Prize include former US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former US Senators Howard Baker and George McGovern, former Polish President Lech Walesa, Congressman John Lewis, and former President George H.W. Bush.
For more information on this or any Dole Institute programs, visit www.doleinstitute.org or call +1 (785) 864-4900. The Dole Institute of Politics is dedicated to promoting public service, civic engagement and politics. It is located on KU’s west campus next to the Lied Center.
The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory at the Nelson Mandela Foundation, a registered Trust, is a human rights-oriented not-for-profit organisation. The Centre delivers to the world an integrated and dynamic information resource on the life and times of Nelson Mandela, and promotes the search for sustainable solutions to critical social problems through memory-based dialogue interventions and tangible activations to realize the legacy of Madiba.