On Sunday, 2 December, all eyes will be glued on FNB Stadium where singer Beyonce will headline performances at the Global Citizen Festival in honour of the late former President Nelson Mandela.
In addition, Beyonce will be joined by her husband and rapper Jay-Z, singer Usher Raymond, South African rapper Cassper Nyovest, Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage and British singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran to name just a few.
Global Citizen Festival is an annual music festival organised by the Global Poverty Project.
The project is a movement that seeks to bring an end to extreme poverty by 2030 as part of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
Global Citizen works across the 17 global goals including food and nutrition, water and sanitation, girls and women, the environment, health and finance and innovation.
This year, the movement saw several South Africans take part in actions and activities that seek to bring an end to global challenges.
Thousands of people across the world and especially South Africans swarmed the Global Citizen site in a bid to take action and earn their ticket to the festival.
With just under two days to go until the concert, Global Citizen co-founder Simon Moss announced that R15 billion worth of pledges have been made and will be announced at the festival.
Moss also announced that FNB Stadium with a capacity of 94 736 spectators has reached its capacity and will be filled to the rafters.
Moss made the announcement at a media briefing held by the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the centenaries of Tata Nelson Mandela and Mama Albertina Sisulu led by Minister Jeff Radebe.
The briefing held by Radebe was in partnership with the founders of the movement and Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe from the Motsepe Foundation as hosts of the event.
At the briefing, Minister Radebe addressed the nation’s state of readiness to host the Global Citizen Mandela 100 Festival.
Radebe said the 100 year anniversary affords people all over the world an opportunity to recommit themselves to living the legacy of Madiba.
“The 100 year anniversary of his birth is an opportunity to recommit ourselves to his principles and build the nation we all envisioned at the birth of our democracy,” said he said.
With tightened security in and around the stadium, Radebe urged global citizens making their way to the concert to familiarise themselves with security measures available on the Global Citizen website and social media pages.
“The activities and deployments outlined will ensure uncompromising security measures are implemented for the duration of the event. These include VIP safety, route, venue, city and accommodation security, a combined intelligence and investigative capacity, crowd management and port of entry deployments; traffic control, which can be deployed to deal with any eventualities.
“The festival is an all-day festival and the gates open at 11am those attending should ensure that they arrive early,” said the Minister.
Global Citizens join hands to end extreme poverty
According to Moss, with 70% of the tickets given freely to those who took action, five million actions have been taken by global citizens across the world.
“The five million actions that have been taken are a mix of online and offline actions that have been taken all around the world but predominantly here in South Africa. So we have been doing everything including working with the City of Johannesburg on the A Re Sebetseng clean-ups and working with clinics to encourage people to go out and get tested as things that people can do to earn tickets,” said Moss.
Through, these actions in the past, Moss said they have made significant strides in urging the Irish government to increase the amount of foreign aid that they provide.
Moloi-Motsepe said the concert comes at a critical time in South Africa as the country marks 16 Days of Activism of no violence against women and children, which is goal five of the sustainable development goals.
“If we target particularly women in rural communities and girls, and ensure that they pursue careers and go to university we will have really made a big dent in terms of improving levels of education in the world and ensuring that young people have economic opportunities and they can become self-sustaining.
“I truly believe that by addressing issues around sustainable development goal number five, we will one way or another have achieved a lot in achieving all the other goals. It has to start with improving the most impoverished in the world and that is women,” said Moloi-Motsepe.
Live viewing on television
While not everyone will get to see the hottest acts live, the festival will be transmitted in over 180 countries across six continents via television and social media channels.
South African viewers can catch the action on DSTV channel 199 and SABC 1. – SAnews.gov.za
