A toast to 50 years

The Highveld Forum had their 50th Annual General Meeting at the Bryanston Country Club on 23 July.

Founded in 1969 as a forum for continuing education, The Highveld Forum, a non-profit organisation has a membership of 250 members. Attendance at any meeting is never less than 190 to 250 people, which includes members plus guests. Meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of every month at the Bryanston Country Club, with the speaker’s address beginning at 10 am.

“We allowabout an hour and a quarter for the talk and possibly ten minutes for questions afterwards. We request that our speakers talk and limit reading,” said Glynis Kossuth, the president of the Forum.

For this special meeting, Roelf Meyer was the guest speaker and the topic he discussed was ‘Lessons from our transition to democracy and the way forward’. Among other titles that Meyer holds, he is known both nationally and internally for actively negotiating the end of apartheid which resulted in the first democratic election in South Africa in 1994.

Meyer first started by giving a brief history of South Africa under apartheid and described his role at the time and painted a vivid picture of the situation to the audience. “To know where we are going as a country, it is best to know our history, “he said. ” After 25 years of democracy, we can see that inequality still pretty much exist- we can see between Sandton and Alexander and these are many of the things that we still need to improve.” Said Meyer.

He explained the process that unfolded in making South Africa a better country, “I accidentally met Cyril Ramaphosa at the airport, but I knew him already because at that time he was a ‘trouble maker’. All we said to each other was ‘we need to talk’ but we didn’t know that that will lead us in a free country today.” Meyer explained that at the time, none of the parties involved knew anything about negotiating but they all had the same objective, “we wanted peace and if we had to sit down with enemy and them with the dictator, then that’s what we had to do. For peace’s sake.”

Throughout the talk, the audience hummed in agreement and even engaged at the end of the talk. They asked questions about the current state of politics in the country, the education system, the future of SA etc. “I think we can all participate in the ‘New South Africa’ by using platforms such as the Highveld forum to discuss and implement ideas that could contribute in ending societal issues that we still face today,” Meyer concluded.

The members, guests, committee and the speaker enjoyed cake and tea afterwards to celebrate Highveld forum 50th year. “I am probably the oldest member here since I started with the first meeting 50 years ago. I am so happy and proud of the forum and the progress it has made throughout the years,” said five-times former president of the forum, Peggy Chapman (85).

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https://staging.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/227888/brand-summit-aims-to-improve-south-africa/

https://staging.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/220844/meet-the-commander-of-the-4th-industrial-revolution/