By Ayo Kehinde
President Donald Trump
The Mandela Foundation has asked President Donald Trump to concede defeat in the US Presidential election to President-elect Joe Biden and in the spirit of sportsmanship, step down, “embrace the democratic process, support the transition and begin contributing to the healing of a deeply fractured society.” In a statement, the foundation congratulated Biden and his Vice-President elect, Kamala Harris
This is the statement below
“It is with a sense of relief that we have seen President Donald Trump defeated in the US presidential election. Like many around the world, we celebrate the fact that we won’t have to watch him undermining democratic institutions and listen to him bringing the most powerful office in the world into disrepute for another four years. Now begins the daunting task for the US of undoing the Trump administration’s deepening of racism, sexism, xenophobia, Afrophobia and many other intersecting vectors of prejudice and hatred.
We congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President elect Kamala Harris on what has been a successful but punishing election campaign. We look forward to seeing the White House occupied by a leadership team which understands the central importance of human dignity. We take special pleasure from the fact that Mz Harris is the first woman in US history to fill the position of Vice-President.
We wish Mr Biden and Ms Harris well in what will be a difficult transition. We call on Mr Trump to embrace the democratic process, support the transition, and begin contributing to the healing of a deeply fractured society. As Nelson Mandela often used to say, a good leader knows when to step down. And how to do so appropriately. It’s not too late for Trump to embrace dignity, for himself and for others.”
