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Archbishop Pius Ncube nominated for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Inkundla.net
May 17, 2005

http://www.inkundla.net/indaba/2005/Nkwenkwezi/piusncube1.php

Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo has been nominated for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award. The award honours the actions of an exceptional individual who in the last year has put humanitarian concerns above all others.

The winner will have demonstrated humanity and compassion, in any part of the world, in peace or in conflict. They may be a leader or a visionary, a notable or hitherto unknown person, in politics, sport, education, charity work, the arts or indeed any field of human activity.

Pius Ncube, the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, is one of the most vocal figures in Zimbabwe’s civil rights movement. Before this year’s elections he criticised government officials for using food aid as a political weapon and in March 2004, he called for South Africa to cut off electricity supplies to Zimbabwe to make Mugabe hold talks with the oppositio. In criticising Mugabe, Ncube has consistently risked his life, and both he and his mother have been threatened with death by the Zimbabwean security service.

He has helped to mobilise a multi-denominational church coalition in Zimbabwe, which is now seen as a significant potential force in resolving the crisis. With other religious leaders he created the Solidarity Peace Trust. Human Rights First recognised the archbishop’s humanitarian achievements by giving him one of their Human Rights Awards in 2003.

The winner of this year’s Robert Burns Humanitarian Award will be announced during the Burns an’ a’ that! Gala Concert at Culzean Castle on Friday 20th May 2005. A distinguished panel of judges, chaired by former Liberal leader and the first Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Lord Steel met earlier this month to put together a short list and choose a winner they felt upheld the views of Burns reflected in his work; that is principles of tolerance, friendship and humanity. Other panel members were Lesley Riddoch, Catherine Lockerbie, Magnus Linklater, Iain MacWhirter and Angus Middleton.

The Robert Burns Humanitarian Award is Scotland's only true international award. It is not sponsored or supported by any business or corporate entity. The winner will receive 1759 guineas (around £1800), a sum which signifies the year of the bard’s birth and the coinage then in circulation, as well as a specially commissioned hand-made award designed by Susan Leiper, inscribed with the Burns poem "A man’s a Man for a’ That".

Previous winners of The Burns Humanitarian Award 2002 Sir John Sulston, the pioneers of the Human Genome Project, 2003 Yitzhak Frankenthal founder of the Parents Circle in Jerusalem, which represents bereaved families campaigning for peace in the Israeli – Palestinian conflict and 2004 Clive Stafford Smith (above), British-born lawyer who has defended clients on death row in the southern states of the USA for over 20 years.

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