Mandela road safety scholarship awarded

Date: 19/7/2011

Yesterday (July 18th) marked Mandela Day and a new scholarship has been awarded with the aim of improving road safety in the country in honour of the former South African president.

The Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship is named after Nelson Mandela's great-granddaughter, who was killed in a car accident following the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup in June 2010.

According to iAfrica, the grant has been awarded to Sianne Abrahams, who attended the Global Road Safety Programme in London earlier this month and now hopes to use the resource to tackle the problem of pedestrian fatalities.

She pledged to educate the country's young people about these dangers.

The grant will also play a role in the ongoing United Nations Decade of Action road safety initiative.

South African Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said the funding will be used to help teach people about how fatalities can be reduced.

Speaking on Mandela Day, he said: "We used the occasion to remind the world that while it is the living who close the eyes of the dead, it is the dead who must open the eyes of the living."

Posted by Sarah Bailey