A s part of the worldwide Plant Trees Not Bombs campaign a Tree of Peace was planted at the Durban ICC This symbolic act fell to Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula the South African minister of de fence and military veterans The tree stands in front of a highly visible external wall on which the UN s Sustainable Development Goals are painted The minister took the op portunity to commit the South African Na tional Defence Force to plant a million trees by September 2020 when the United Nations will be celebrating its 75th anniversary The aim is to plant 75 million trees worldwide by then not just to promote global peace but to highlight the impact of climate change as well The UN is involved in the initiative as a partner At the tree planting ceremony Mapisa Nqakula stressed that it is necessary to go to war on this new threat of climate change To highlight the nature of the chal lenge and the versatility of the armed forces 20 TradeFairs Internation al 2 2020 INTERNATIONAL SOUTH AFRICA The first of 75 million Last November the Durban International Convention Centre Durban ICC hosted a very special event and became a role model for the whole world the tree was lowered from a military helicop ter Mapisa Nqakula took the opportunity to reflect on what the military should be for As we are gathered here we are reopening a chapter on the role of the military she said Help for the homeless To combat Covid 19 the South African government announced a national lockdown on 23March A reception and screening centre for Ethekwini Metropolitan Municipality hasbeen set up at the Durban Exhibition Centre DEC in an effort to shelter the homeless during the lockdown The DEC has become the central point where homeless people can gather to receive assistance They get meals blankets hygiene packs and medical assess ments and screening The Durban ICC is committed to playing its part and offering as much support as we can reported Durban ICC CEO Lindiwe Rakharebe Initially 1 000 people were expected to be screened at the centre however we were actually able to help 1 600 people over the course of the first three days alone Following the assessment and screening each person receives a wristband and is transported to one of the various venues provided by the city authorities where they are housed and fed for the duration of the lockdown declaring that it can plant trees and give life instead of dropping bombs and inflicting pain and death The African politician and humanitarian Graça Machel emphasised how South Africa is leading by example with this campaign The example being set here in South Africa is going to fire up many other ministers of defence she predicted Histo ry will have to attest that it started in South Africa it started in Durban and it became a global movement Durban ICC CEO Lindiwe Rakharebe emphasised how honoured they were to be planting the tree at the Inkosi Al bert Luthuli International Convention Centre to give it is full name The complex is named after Africa s first Nobel Peace Prize laureate The planting of this first tree officially launches the Plant Trees Not Bombs cam paign she declared www icc co za PB Südafrikas Verteidi gungsministerin Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula 2 v l und Menschenrechtlerin Graça Machel l werden begrüßt South Africa s defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula 2nd from left and human rights activist Graça Machel left are wel comed Ph ot o D ur ba n IC C

Hinweis: Dies ist eine maschinenlesbare No-Flash Ansicht.
Klicken Sie hier um zur Online-Version zu gelangen.