Barack Obama to deliver Mandela lecture
Former United States President Barack Obama will deliver this year’s Nelson Mandela lecture.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation confirmed this at the launch of international Mandela Day at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg.
The Foundation's CEO, Sello Hatang, says the lecture will take place on the 17th of July, a day before what would have been Mandela's 100th birthday.
The lecture will be held at Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg.
Last year, the lecture was delivered by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed.
The last time Obama visited South Africa he spoke at Mandela’s official memorial service in Soweto in 2013.
He described the late president as a man of action.
"Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas, the importance of reason and arguments. The need to study not only those you agree with but those who you don’t. He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison cells".