It's going to be a bright and early start to Wednesday morning as the meeting moves to Zoo Lake for the induction of seven new members. Wednesday, 23 February, also happens to be Rotary's 117th birthday and that will be the second leg to what is shaping up to be an eventful meeting.
Joan Sainsbury and Babette Gallard have organised a bumper morning with a third leg to the morning; a visit to the new plastics recycling centre at Zoo Lake for the official opening. The recycling centre is apparently a very short drive from the meeting place.
Please be at the Moyo parking area (it's signposted along Jan Smuts Ave) by 6.30 am in time to register your attendance and grab a muffin or scone and a ticket for coffee from the coffee kiosk. The meeting will be held at the tree we planted on Spring Day last year which, according to Babette, is thriving. The meeting will start at 7.00 am.
We're expecting more than 50 people, so don't leave home late. Attendees will include District Governor Stella Anyangwe, IPDG Annemarie Mostert, DGND George Senosha and our interim AG, Peter James-Smith, who will give a short summary of Rotary's history.
The weather was particularly fine that day after the end of a very cold winter and hopefully the incessant rains will stay away long enough to make for another festive occasion.
Attendance costs R100 (bring cash) and includes aforementioned something to eat and a cup of coffee. If you want a second cup, come and collect another ticket for free. A third cup? We'll have to see. Craig Green of CupaJozi is only charging New Dawn R25 for a cup of your favourite morning coffee and the rest will go to fill the club coffers.
The seven inductees are: Ivone Vosloo, who has been attending meetings for a while now and was introduced to New Dawn by Karlien Kruger, her sister-in-law. Tshepo Ramutungu is director of Umbiyso art school in Soweto and will be a useful link between Soweto and New Dawn. Paul Chinn comes with a wealth of business and humanitarian experience. He's married to Babette Gallard.
Mbali Zulu of The Box Shop Think Tank also has deep roots in Soweto. Ntombikayise Maselwa is an educator at heart and Lawrence Rule is the right-hand man to Linda Twala of Alexandra. Shaun Khoza is, like his wife, Olivia Schoombie, very community minded and brings a wealth of experience to the club.
The organisers have also asked that each one of us brings a big bag of plastic waste to the meeting with a hamper going to the biggest bag.
Joan reports that Michael Beretta, MD of dotGood, will open the doors of the recycling centre and give a short talk on why it is so important. This will take place after the New Dawn meeting.
Our speaker this week was Professor Dries Velthuizen of the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs at Unisa. He's a member of the Rotary e-Club of D9400 and a Paul Harris (Sapphire) Fellow. He's an expert on Pace and Conflict Prevention and Resolution, one of the seven Rotary areas of Focus.
Everyone of us is an agent for peace if we want to be one, he said. Positive peace is more than just the absence of violence, although to those who live in violent circumstances, the absence of violence is everything.
Through the African Rotary Community Mediation project (ARCOM, in which PDG Jankees Sligcher is very involved) Rotary aims to train 100 expert mediators, of whom 30 should be Rotarians, to work in conflict areas in the Southern African districts.
The idea is that mediation teams visit clubs and enquire about potential conflict. Communities, or people within communities, must then invite the mediators to try to resolve conflict, which can be anything from a fight within a family or in church or homeless communities, or involve potential gender based violence.
"It's not just about political conflict," he said and added that the mediation teams will have to be careful about moving into the field of political violence and conflict.
A Thought for the Week: When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. - P.J. O'Rourke (1947 - 2022)
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