GMA Extra: To Angola on motorbikes
Background:
The town of Cuito Cuanavale, bore the brunt of one of the deadliest battles of the Angolan Civil war – that raged from 1975 to 2002. The Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) supported by Cuba and Umkhonto we Sizwe battled it out with the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) backed by the South African Defence force for six months in 1987/88 . The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, was at that time, the biggest battle on African soil since World War II. Both sides claimed victory.
Today, it is clear that the town and the people of Cuito Cuanavale lost the most. In fact, they never recovered. A group of former soldiers – from both the SANDF and MK are planning to visit the Angolan town – leaving on 8 May 2015. It is a motorbike pilgrimage to deal with the ghost of the past, but also to create awareness of the plight of the town – where some roads and areas are still unsafe due to landmines. There is also only one teacher – who has taken the responsibility to educate young and old – with virtually no educational supplies – including work books and pens. They are looking for sponsors to support this effort. You can read more and contact them on www.angolaonabike.com
Original request:
Dear Complimentary Breakfast Team,
We are a group existing of ex South African Veterans, an Ex Umkhonto we Sizwe veteran, as well as a 25 year old female with an honours degree in developmental economics, doing a trip to Angola on motorbikes.
Our pilgrimage is to Cuito Cuanavale, a town which played a big role in our country’s political state. Being a part of the war in Angola, the veterans are all going back to put ghosts to rest as well as to make peace with the horrible state the Angolans find themselves in.
According to Patrick Ricketts, an Umkhonto we Sizwe veteran who visits this area frequently, the town Cuito Cuanavale has one educator only. This educator teaches the adults and elderly residents in the mornings and the children have class in the afternoon.
Our aim is to collect basic educational requirement such as pens etc. from as sponsors has possible, to make people aware of the sad state that town finds itself in after a war in which many of our South Africans also fought.
By reaching out and giving back to this community, we are creating an opportunity to try develop a community which has daily struggles such as landmines and lack of education.
We have created a website www.angolaonabike.com to make as many people aware as possible, and for people to have a look at what we are planning on doing. Our aim is to get for example 5000 people to each donate one pen and not just for one company to donate 5000 pens and in this way creating an opportunity for 5000 people to make a change.
We would like the opportunity to maybe converse with the complimentary breakfast to make more people aware of what we are doing and to give more people the opportunity to help reach out and give back to a community.
We will have various garages and other companies involved which will have drop off points for people who want to donate a pen and also writing pads for people who feel they would like to send a note to the community of Cuito Cuanavale.
Listening to Rian and the team’s discussions last month regarding ex-veterans made us realize that there are many people like my fellow team mates that needs some way of expressing themselves and something as small as a pen might relieve some of the pressures. It is also a project which we can extend into our own country by giving a hand to someone in need.
We appreciate the opportunity to contact you and trust you will help us to help others.
Regards,
Tammy Booysen