Route 67, which will be launched by the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) on Saturday, 24 September is not only a route to attract local and international tourists, it is also a route that will serve as an educational tool to the youth of Nelson Mandela Bay.
Memories of April 27, 1994 when millions of South Africans queued for hours to cast their ballots in this country’s first democratic election will come flooding back this Thursday (22 September) when 3 500 schoolchildren from Nelson Mandela Bay recreate that event as part of the MBDA Lifestyle Conference.
The conference will stretch over four days from this Thursday and will include a conference on Friday, the launch of Route 67 on heritage day and the first Urban Run to be staged in Nelson Mandela Bay on Sunday, 25 September.
The children who will be coming from High Schools such Gqeberha, Ethembeni, Morningside, Victoria Park, Mfesane, Cowan and Alexander Road High to name but a few, will form a long queue stretching from the Chapel Street entrance to the Donkin Reserve along the newly constructed path that snakes its way up to the Great Flag so as to recreate the queues that were formed throughout Nelson Mandela Bay and the country on that historic election day 17 years ago.
It will also be an opportunity for the children, who have been specially selected because they will have reached the age where they will be able to vote in the next national and provincial elections in 2013, to get an early taste of what that experience will be like.
Each of the children will be asked to sign their names on a piece of paper that will later become part of the 67 steps project. They will also be given a piece of white chalk and asked to trace their shadows where they stand and sign their names at that spot.
Five photography students and five artists will document and assist with this process.
MBDA CEO Pierre Voges says that September is Heritage Month and the first occasion on which all South Africans voted together is a part of our common heritage.
“Most of the children taking part would not have been born on April 27, 1994 and recreating that occasion will allow them to have a sense of the joy that their parents and all South Africans experienced on that day. It will also be an opportunity for those who want to recapture the moment that they voted for the first time and the emotions they felt then, most importantly, it will be an opportunity for them to learn about our past and heritage” added Voges who expressed his excitement about the youth of Nelson Mandela Bay being the first members of the public to view the newly constructed Route 67.
Alan Straton
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