February 11, 2000
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (PANA) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela Friday commemorated the 10th anniversary of his release from prison by inaugurating a museum in his honour at the tiny Eastern Cape village of Mvezo.
The museum is located at the spot where Mandela was born 82 years ago.
All that remains of the huts where Mandela's family once lived are the broken foundations of small huts which are now overgrown by bush and neglected.
However, the site will take its place as one of three Nelson Mandela museums in the area.
The three-part project, yet to be completed, is expected to bring tourist dollars, jobs and development to one of South Africa's poorest and least developed provinces.
The national Department of Arts and Culture has undertaken to restore the site and the reconstructed homestead will become a visitor's centre with mementoes of Mandela's life.
In addition, it will store hundreds of gifts presented to Mandela internationally during his term in office.
Reflecting back on that epic moment a decade ago and the path he followed since then, Mandela said he would have done very little differently.
"Thinking back to that day 10 years ago, we can only be amazed at how far we have come as a country. Everything we have achieved in this decade has been the product of partnership," he said.
"It is not an individual who is responsible for what has happened in this country," he added. "We succeeded because of good men and women in every community and organisation, people who understood that whatever the differences between us, there were many more things that united us, and made us one nation with one destiny."