De express really late wit this one...check the date when I originally posted this topic and now check the date the Express is posting this topic
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161134003South Africa to honour Williams and Ramphal
Rickey Singh
Monday, April 23rd 2007
SOUTH Africa will tomorrow confer its highest national honour, posthumously on Trinidad and Tobago's longest serving Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams, and also on Sir Shridath Ramphal, former three-term Commonwealth Secretary General.
They will receive from President Thabo Mbeki at a state ceremony, "The Order of the Companions of OR Tambo" for their respective outstanding contributions against apartheid, racism and peace and friendship.
The award, named after the late Oliver Tambo, one of the founding leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) and a most influential international mobiliser for years against South Africa's heinous apartheid system, is normally awarded in three categories-Gold, Silver and Bronze.
Williams, author of Capitalism and Slavery and father of Trinidad and Tobago's Independence, and Ramphal, former Chancellor of the University of the West Indies as well as chairman of The West Indian Commission, will both receive the OR Tambo in gold from President Mbeki.
They will, therefore, join the two former Caricom leaders to have been similarly honoured, posthumously in 2004-President Cheddi Jagan of Guyana and Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica.
Williams' daughter, Erica, is expected to receive the award on behalf of her father who died in 1981.Â
Before leaving for South Africa at the weekend from Barbados where he now lives with his family, the former Guyana Foreign Minister and Attorney General told the Express: "I feel specially honoured, an honour I share with the Caribbean people who gave me much strong support in all I did....In a sense, the Tambo Award is for the Caribbean and the wider Common-wealth."
Ramphal is the first Caribbean national to receive the OR Tambo Award which was initially granted to leaders of government.
Other exceptions to the list of world personalities include America's great civil rights leader, the late Martin Luther King, and former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan.
All of the three classes of the OR Tambo Award consist of four elements-a walking stick, neck badge, miniature and a lapel rosette.