Victor Mecoamere

Victor Mecoamere

Three special individuals will be honoured at the 17th yearly Old Mutual, SABC and Sowetan Community Builder of the Year Award gala. The function takes place at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg tomorrow night.

Steve Biko, Albertina Sisulu and Beyers Naude will be conferred with Lifetime Achievement Awards in recognition, acknowledgement and honour of their courageous, selfless and committed contribution to the development of a better future for all South Africans.

Their work continues to inspire others to follow in their footsteps and also to become beacons of excellence, integrity and ubuntu.

Biko's belief that blacks had to stop feeling inferior to whites formed the heart of the Black Consciousness Movement.

Biko pioneered many self-help community organisations in health, education and journalism.

For more than 50 years, Sisulu committed herself to The Albertina Sisulu Foundation for children and old people.

MaSisulu was recently elected president by Switzerland's World Peace Council in Basel for her struggle against apartheid and her work among women and children.

Afrikaner cleric Beyers Naude went against his entire upbringing, his community and the apartheid government when he took a stand against apartheid.

Naude's struggle against oppression and the establishment makes him one of our most courageous heroes.

When Naude died in September 2004, Nelson Mandela described him as an old friend who had stood up against apartheid at a time when it was not popular for white people to do so. Mandela said Naude had paid dearly for his stand because he was ostracised by his own people.