Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia – 2018/07/14

Advocacy Group Cage Africa and the Muslim Lawyers Association’s Feroz Bodha describes the decision by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to invite former US President Barack Obama to address the centennial celebrations of the late struggle icon as ‘incomprehensible’.

The group wrote open letters to the foundation querying the inclusion of Obama, calling it perplexing.

“Mandela’s struggle was a just struggle, when he was the president of this country, he had no blood on his hands, he used his powers to try and unite people.”

In honour of former President Nelson Mandela’s centenary next week, the annual lecture will focus on “Renewing the Mandela Legacy and Promoting Active Citizenship in a Changing World”.

Bodha says he cannot understand how the foundation is able to give a war criminal a platform to speak.

“Barack Obama just fooled the world, when he came to power, he said look, we tortured some folks, so I’m not going to increase Guantanamo Bay, I’m going to try and close it and I’m going to reduce the population.”

Bodha adds that people do not see the bigger problem as a result of the decision to close Guantanamo.

“Basically what he’s done is that if he sees a suspected terrorist, he’ll rather just kill them instead of detaining, increasing the drone programme and the use of extraordinary, extra territorial and extra judicial assassinations.”

The Palestine Solidarity alliance together with the Media Review Network and other groups have also denounced the invitation extended by the foundation to have Obama address the centennial celebrations.

Listen to the full interview below:

(madabhelia)