World stars for Mandela's Aids bash
October 22, 2003 Edition -1
Candice Bailey
More than 20 international crowd-pullers and a collection of homegrown artists will rock Green Point Stadium next month for Nelson Mandela's international Aids awareness concert.
The big thrash is set for November 29, and is the main part of a worldwide musician-led campaign to create awareness of Aids in Africa.
Local stars Bongo Maffin, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Danny K and Johnny Clegg and international acts like U2 frontman Bono, Irish pop group The Corrs, Beyoncé Knowles, 50 cent and Baaba Maal will be among the performers at the three-hour spectacular.
The concert will be broadcast live on the internet by Tiscali and televised by 100 Mtv channels globally. They will screen the event on World Aids Day, December 1. It is expected to reach an audience of about 2 billion people around the world.
Last night, after talk surfaced that the concert was about to be postponed for a second time, John Samuel, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, confirmed that the concert was a done deal.
"It will definitely be happening.
"I was at the press conference where Mr Mandela made the announcement," he said from London last night.
He said Mandela was very pleased the concert was going ahead.
Also, for Mandela selecting Cape Town as a venue was a clear choice in terms of the former president's presence in the city for a number of years and his release from Robben Island.
Samuel added: "This is not the concert that was postponed earlier this year.
"It is an entirely new campaign. It was reconceived, replanned and redesigned."
The concert forms part of Mandela's latest campaign to create Aids awareness - it is called "46664 - Give 1 minute of your life to Stop Aids" and is named after Mandela's Robben Island prison number.
At the press conference yesterday, via a live satellite link from London, Mandela said: "I was known just as a number (46664).
"Millions of people today infected with Aids are just classified as a number.
"They too are serving a prison sentence for life."
One of the campaign's main aims is to call on citizens around the world to put pressure on their governments to respond to Aids as an international emergency.
The campaign aims to raise money through the launch of a 46664 CD and DVD early next year.
It also aims to launch a global petition by using worldwide telephone networks.
Callers will be able to phone in via local numbers and South Africans can dial 082 146 664 at a premium rate or SMS 46664 at a fee of R20 per SMS.
The service is only open to Vodacom and MTN subscribers for the time being.
Tickets and further details to the concert will be available next week.
