What has been described as “long overdue”, the community of Eldorado Park will be celebrating the author of “Memory is a weapon”, Dr. Donato Francisco Mattera, better known as “Don” Mattera on the 1st February 2020 at the Don Mateman Civic Hall in Eldorado Park.
The planned Black-Tie event will also mark the official launch of The Don Mattera Legacy Foundation with the theme “Communities Honoring Don Mattera”. Don’s son, a celebrated film maker, Teddy Mattera says, “It is no easy task to encapsulate the enormity of the person, our father is. He is a distinguished author, a poet who can recite his epic poems in an oral tradition which is both passionate and unique, a storyteller, journalist and both a national as well as a community leader and quintessential anti-racist. This is the man I know as our father that we are honoring”.
The Don Mattera Legacy Foundation was conceived in early 2019 by a group of concerned professionals and Dr. Mattera’s son Teddy, who took it upon themselves to ensure that the rich legacy of Dr. Mattera stays integral for the current as well as future generations. The Foundation plans to recognize and appreciate the immense sacrifice and contribution that Dr Mattera has made in the realm of literature, arts, journalism and the liberation of South Africa.
Chairperson of the Organising Committee Dr. Leonard Martin said, “This celebration of a stalwart, poet and author in the form of Don Mattera is long past its due date. This is a view of many who know the consistent contributions of this “Titan of the South African liberation struggle. His struggle credentials need no artificial embellishment or validation. What is incontestable is that Don Mattera is the mouthpiece of the South African downtrodden, the excluded and marginalized, and he articulates this capacity with distinction. It would be no exaggeration to underline that Don Mattera is the palette of the South African anti-colonial and anti-Apartheid fighter. A transgressor of all racial and ethnic restriction and exclusivity.”
A broader Community focused sports event at the Eldorado Park Sports Stadium, is planned for a later date to accommodate the broader communities of Eldorado Park, Ennerdale, Westbury and Bosmont. The sports event will also encompass Dr Mattera’s work with the physically and otherwise challenged children. In his day-to-day life Don Mattera is the idiom of multi-cultural diversity, both culturally and socially. He is the archetypal African humanist, unreservedly all-inclusive South African. Don grew up within a Christian belief system but later converted to Islam.
“We call on all communities, activists, professionals, business-people and religious leaders to celebrate this living legend that continues to serve the legacy of all the fallen heroes and heroines of the ongoing South African Struggle,” Martin concluded.
The Foundation has called on business, organisations and NGO’s that want to partner or support them to contact Estelle Kater - kater_estelle@lilly.com or on 066 472 6383 (mobile) or like the Facebook Page - @DMLegacyFoundation or follow us on Twitter @MatteraLegacy.
For donotions visit Back A Buddy https://www.backabuddy.co.za/charity/profile/dmlf
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Released by: Fundi Communications & Advertising
On behalf of: The Don Mattera Legacy Foundation
For more information contact: 011 888 1234 or email verona@fundipro.co.za
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