Brush up on your history at Long March to Freedom in Century City, one of South Africa’s most distinctive outdoor exhibitions. Featuring 100 life-size bronze sculptures, the exhibition pays tribute to the country’s most influential historical figures and freedom fighters.
From Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu to Walter Sisulu, Long March to Freedom takes visitors through pivotal moments in South Africa’s journey, paying homage to those who fought tirelessly for democracy.
South Africa’s Story in Bronze
Set against the backdrop of Table Mountain, this heritage tourism attraction is fun for all ages! As you wander among the 100 life-size bronze sculptures of liberation heroes, you can experience the country’s 350-year journey towards freedom and democracy.
Created by Dali Tambo, the project was inspired by a promise to his father, Oliver Tambo, to honour him and his peers. Rather than focusing on a single icon, the exhibition celebrates the collective efforts of those who shaped the nation. Since opening in 2019, the site has continued to evolve, with educational programmes bringing school groups face-to-face with the stories that shaped the nation.
Reflect and Unwind
After walking through the exhibition, visit the Rotary Peace Garden to reflect and take it all in. If you have time, try the curated wine-tasting experience featuring five wines from emerging Black winemakers, each accompanied by their inspiring stories.
Plan Your Visit
Whether you’re a history enthusiast or seeking something beyond the usual Cape Town attractions, Long March to Freedom is well worth a visit.
Ticket prices: South Africans and permanent residents: R20 for a self-guided tour; international visitors: R75 for a guided tour; children under 6: free.
For updated ticket prices and opening hours, visit here.
LOME, Togo, 27 February 2026 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/ – The Bluemind Foundation announces that its Founder and President, Marie Alix De Putter, has been selected to join the Praxis Africa Accelerator, an internationally recognized ecosystem supporting founders committed to building organizations that change systems, not just outcomes.
Praxis brings together entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders who view enterprises and organizations not merely as economic instruments but as architectures capable of sustainably transforming social systems. Rooted in a tradition of rigorous ethical and spiritual reflection, the ecosystem supports leaders for whom faith is an inner discipline in service of the common good.
This selection comes at a moment of strategic acceleration for the Bluemind Foundation, a pioneer of an innovative community-based mental health model deployed in Francophone Africa, notably in Togo, Cameroon, and Côte d’Ivoire.
A SYSTEMIC APPROACH TO MENTAL HEALTH
French-Cameroonian, Marie-Alix De Putter has developed over the years a thesis that has become central to her work: mental health is health; it is a social, cultural, and political infrastructure. Her work raises a crucial question of public governance: what becomes of a society when psychological suffering remains invisible, underfunded, and politically marginalized? From this inquiry, she founded the Bluemind Foundation and designed innovative community-based interventions that bring care to where trust already exists, build bridges with public systems, and make mental health legitimate, measurable, and fundable. The Heal by Hair program, which trains hairdressers as mental health ambassadors, exemplifies this socially rooted engineering, designed from the outset for institutional integration. In less than five years:
Over 300,000 women have received early support;
Public campaigns have reached more than 350 million people;
Strategic partnerships have been established with universities, governments, and international institutions;
A scientific evaluation protocol, supported by the Development Innovation Fund, is currently underway in Togo
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION AND A NEW PHASE OF STRUCTURING
Joining the Praxis program represents international recognition of the model developed by the Bluemind Foundation.
It will strengthen governance structures before scaling, deepen sustainable funding and public integration mechanisms, and embed the Foundation within an international network of impact funders, granting access to patient capital aligned with its mission. At the same time, it will enhance coherence between organizational culture, performance, and institutional accountability.
The Foundation is preparing for regional scale-up, with an ambitious multi-country impact goal by 2030: • 5,000 trained hairdresser-ambassadors;
3,000 active community hubs ;
Over 5 million women and youth with structured access to mental health support. To meet the extensive needs in West and Central Africa, the Bluemind Foundation is entering a new phase of capital structuring for broader deployment, combining philanthropic funding, institutional partnerships, and sustainable public integration mechanisms.
From Lomé (Togo), the Foundation is structuring an African model designed for the realities of the continent and the world, with a clear mission: to make care accessible to everyone, everywhere, every day.
A UNIQUE VOICE IN CARE GOVERNANCE
Marie-Alix de Putter’s path was forged by an experience of devastating personal loss. While four months pregnant, she lost her husband to assassination. That rupture became the lens through which she understood everything that followed: when care systems are absent or inaccessible, suffering is never private—it becomes economic, institutional, and political.
Her approach combines systemic design, scientific rigor, strategic storytelling, and institutional negotiation. An author with three Master’s degrees and an Executive MBA, trained at Harvard Business School and Oxford, Marie-Alix de Putter regularly speaks in academic, economic, and political arenas on public health, leadership, and organizational transformation.
Her leadership has been recognized as a Desmond Tutu Fellow (AFLI), Best Woman Leader in Africa (AIFA), one of the 30 Most Innovative People in Africa (Quartz), and with inclusion in the Biographical Dictionary of French Protestants. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Le Monde, BBC, The Guardian, Vogue, Jeune Afrique, Der Spiegel, and other major international media.
A STRUCTURING MILESTONE
“If redemption were a spectrum, Praxis would sit at its most demanding edge. I enter the inaugural cohort of the Praxis Africa Accelerator with gratitude and gravity, aware that as impact grows, responsibility deepens. At a pivotal moment for the Bluemind Foundation, Praxis strengthens not only our strategy but also our internal architecture—the moral and organizational discipline necessary to scale without diluting meaning and values. This important milestone belongs to every Blueminder who engages, often away from the headlines, where systems are fragile and the cost of inaction is measured in (young) lives.” – Marie-Alix de Putter, President and Founder, Bluemind Foundation
This selection marks a key step in the Bluemind Foundation’s international positioning and confirms its ambition: to to embed African community-based mental health models — culturally legitimate, scientifically evaluated, and economically viable — into the institutions that shape public life.
The Bluemind Foundation is a pioneering non-profit mental health organization that integrates care into everyday spaces, starting with hair salons, turning everyday spaces into genuine lifelines. It empowers local communities across Africa and beyond through innovative, scalable, cost-effective, evidence-based solutions that change lives where care is most needed. The mission of the Bluemind Foundation is to bring hope, dignity, and mental well-being to everyone, everywhere, every day.
For more information about the Bluemind Foundation and its initiatives: X, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered an inquiry Wednesday to establish whether previous governments led by his party intentionally blocked investigations and prosecutions of apartheid-era crimes.
The landmark move, which survivors and families of those who were killed have demanded for more than 20 years, will address allegations of “improper influence in delaying or hindering” investigations that have been levelled against post-apartheid governments led by the African National Congress party, Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement.
The ANC was the organization at the forefront of the battle against the system of white minority rule and led South Africa to democracy in 1994. But ANC-led governments since then have been criticized by some for prioritizing national reconciliation ahead of justice for victims.
Ramaphosa’s announcement of a judicial commission of inquiry came after 25 survivors and relatives of victims of apartheid-era crimes launched a court case against his government in January seeking damages. They alleged that successive South African governments since the late 1990s had failed to properly investigate unresolved killings, disappearances and other crimes during the time of forced racial segregation despite recommendations made by the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The new inquiry was part of a settlement agreement in the January court case, Ramaphosa’s office said.
“President Ramaphosa appreciates the anguish and frustration of the families of victims, who have fought for so many years for justice,” it said.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in 1996 by then-President Nelson Mandela under the chairmanship of fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu. Its mission was to expose and record apartheid-era crimes and give some of those responsible an opportunity to confess their role, including members of the apartheid government’s state security forces that were implicated in many killings.
Some were granted amnesty from prosecution, but others didn’t come forward and thousands were denied amnesty.
One of the most prominent unresolved cases is that of the Cradock Four, a group of Black anti-apartheid activists who were abducted and murdered by security forces in 1985. Their bodies were burned and security officers were suspected of torturing them.
Six former police officers appeared before the commission in 1999 over the murders of Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkonto, but none of them were granted amnesty.
No one has been prosecuted for the killings and the circumstances of the deaths have never been fully revealed. They are among the thousands of crimes during apartheid where victims and families still haven’t seen justice.
Lukhanyo Calata, whose father Fort was one of the Cradock Four, is part of the group that took the current South African government to court in January. He said at the start of that court case that successive South African governments since the administration of President Thabo Mbeki from 1999-2008 had failed to act on the commission’s recommendations and had denied victims and their families justice. He and other relatives say that government ministers intervened to prevent the investigation and prosecution of crimes.
While the majority of the victims of apartheid-era crimes were Black, whites have also sought justice decades later.
Farewell, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Your departure on the day of sharing LOVE, “Boxes day” speaks volumes. It befits the treasure that the life you lived was. It is an evidence of your commitments to humanity, education, democracy and the promotion of human rights and dignity which you laboriously identified with.
In the words of Sir Winston Churchill, “The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” The truth is sacrosanct, the truth is constant, the truth sets free. May Almighty God grant us the grace, willingness and readiness to pursue and stand for the truth, regardless of primordial, ethnic and religious sentiments. Bishop Desmond Tutu, you stood up for the TRUTH.
Bishop Desmond Tutu, you are an evidence of grace and a great gift to humanity. In your own words, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” This is part of the most profound words on marble and it becomes indelible in the minds of some of us, your disciples.
Bishop Desmond Tutu, you were a dependable ally to the great ‘Madiba’ Nelson Mandela; a father figure, a global icon, a freedom fighter, and an African hero. No hero is perfect. No leader is faultless. Your life is a great testimony of selfishness and commitment to a decent society.
Bishop Tutu, you were fearless and courageous, from the pulpit to the street. Bravery is not the absence of fear but the existence of courage. In you, some of us found hope, unwavering mindset, fighting spirit, courage and determination to confront the oppressors.
Assuredly, we will not relent, instead, we shall continue to strive for perfection, we must pursue vigorously, courageously despite our imperfections, despite our fears. This is because you did not give up the struggle for FREEDOM.
The will to do better, to be better is the ultimate credentials to be heroes. We are motivated and encouraged to continue with the good work you left behind. The African soldier and the Revolutionary clergy.
It is a well-known fact that no one is born a hero. We all need to look within and find what we need to make that remarkable difference. Bishop Desmond Tutu, we recognised the heroism in you. Every day of our lives together we shall continue to strive to be better, to do better. We will do it again and again for your sake. Sleep well the Revolutionary clergy, rest in power Desmond Tutu.
Let me conclude the tribute with ‘change’ which is part of your attributes; change can be very unsettling at times; to be quite honest, it can be downright scary, but one of the benefits of change is the fact that you have an opportunity to shape and mould the future you want. When change comes, stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being excited about what could go right. Bishop Desmond Tutu your life exemplified CHANGE.
GOOD NIGHT, GREAT AFRICAN.
Richard Odusanya is a Social Reform Crusader and the convener of AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE (ACRI)
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has died at the age of 90.
The Nobel Peace prize laureate was instrumental in the fight that helped end apartheid in South Africa.
He was a contemporary of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, and is known for the movement to end the policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1991.
Tutu’s death comes just weeks after that of South Africa’s last apartheid-era president, FW de Clerk, died at the age of 85.
Tributes pour in
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tutu was “an iconic spiritual leader, anti-apartheid activist and global human rights campaigner”.
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He said Archbishop Tutu had helped bequeath “a liberated South Africa”.
Ramaphosa described him as “a patriot without equal; a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead.
“A man of extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid, he was also tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice and violence under apartheid, and oppressed and downtrodden people around the world.”
Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba lauded the clergyman for his moral strength, moral courage and clarity.
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Makgoba said in a statement that the church will plan Tutu’s funeral and services.
Ordained as a priest in 1960, he went on to serve as bishop of Lesotho from 1976-78, assistant bishop of Johannesburg and rector of a parish in Soweto.
He became Bishop of Johannesburg in 1985, and was appointed the first black Archbishop of Cape Town.
Tutu used his high-profile role to speak out against oppression of black people in his home country, always saying his motives were religious and not political.
After Mandela became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, Tutu was appointed by him to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate crimes committed by both whites and blacks during the apartheid era.
He was also credited with coining the term Rainbow Nation to describe the ethnic mix of post-apartheid South Africa, but in his later years he expressed regret that the nation had not merged in the way in which he had dreamt.
