Today, O.R. Tambo died

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Yzerfontein

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“What stopped me from going to the airport was because as Madiba arrived, comrades would run to get next to him to appear on the television. That’s what is called a photo opportunity. OR (Tambo) never looked for photo opportunities.” President Mbeki on why he doesn't go to the airport when Nelson Mandela returns from overseas.

Ironically, President Mbeki has ensured that comrade O.R. Tambo will now be a continuous "photo opportunity" at the airport, a constant reminder of money wasted with no resulting tangible benefits for the disadvantaged.

"Oliver Tambo has not died, because the ideals of freedom cannot perish...As you directed, we will bring freedom to the oppressed, we will not fail you." (Nelson Mandela in 1993 after Tambo's death).

The cost of changing the name of the airport could have been spent on an educational institution dedicated to opening the doors of learning to the disadvantaged and powerfully enhancing their freedom (and O.R. would have been honoured to have this named after him).

Today, we have failed Oliver Tambo. Today, O.R. Tambo has died.
 
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So true.......
I also wondered how changing Johannesburg International's name to something else fed the poor and created jobs. Funny thing is there's still name boards up indicating the way to Jan Smuts Airport. Now on top of having rampant crime, the same number of poor people, still not enough jobs, still not enough health care facilities, limited educational opportunities, corruption, inefficient goverment departments and AIDS, we'll have three different names for the same airport. SA needed this like we need Jacob "I lost my toy machine gun" Zuma as president.....

I wonder how this will help to (In OR Tambo's words) "....break down barriers of division and create a country where there will be neither whites nor blacks, just South Africans, free and united in diversity."?
 
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Doges said:
So true.......
I also wondered how changing Johannesburg International's name to something else fed the poor and created jobs. Funny thing is there's still name boards up indicating the way to Jan Smuts Airport. Now on top of having rampant crime, the same number of poor people, still not enough jobs, still not enough health care facilities, limited educational opportunities, corruption, inefficient goverment departments and AIDS, we'll have three different names for the same airport. SA needed this like we need Jacob "I lost my toy machine gun" Zuma as president.....

I wonder how this will help to (In OR Tambo's words) "....break down barriers of division and create a country where there will be neither whites nor blacks, just South Africans, free and united in diversity."?
Click to expand...

We're so inefficient we're actually saving money (we only need to change the signposts once!!). Leeanne Mannas asked one of the governement officials what the cost was - his answer - "cost is not an issue"....ummm, really - maybe not to him but there are plenty of people in Nyanga or Soweto for whom that money could have meant the difference between having something in the belly or starving....the government has lost touch with the people's needs.
 
They're erecting a bust of OR Tambo at the airport. Probably to remind us who he was and what he looked like.;)

"I am a terrorist."...O.R. Tambo
 
Yeah, and the whole reason the name was changed from Jan Smuts? Because it was a political name, supposedly. We had that whole period where things were changed to politically neutral names, like JIA.

But I guess that's ancient history, huh? Not that I have a problem with honouring Oliver Tambo - I just can't stand hypocrites.
 
Xarog said:
Yeah, and the whole reason the name was changed from Jan Smuts? Because it was a political name, supposedly. We had that whole period where things were changed to politically neutral names, like JIA.

But I guess that's ancient history, huh? Not that I have a problem with honouring Oliver Tambo - I just can't stand hypocrites.
Click to expand...

The ANC is setting up a track-record of backsliding when it suits them. Look at Cape Town. First they set up an executive mayoral committee when they're in power, then they try dismantle it when they're out of power.
 
This is probably more about the Xhosa culture of tribal over-domination than intelligent political decision making.
 
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