Nebraska News Desk

Johannesburg, South Africa – A cool and breezy Sunday evening in Johannesburg, South Africa welcomed music fans belonging to the many nations who canvas all stretches of our world. Cheerful bright energy and ‘distinct warmth’ filled the arena as fans packed the seats, club boxes, and floor-field of the First National Bank Stadium supporting an ending to extreme poverty. The event, held in commemoration of former South African President Nelson Mandela, hosted more than 94,000 spectators live; meanwhile millions of others around the world watched via online streaming services.

The Global Citizens Festival is an annual music festival created by the Global Poverty Project. Designed to generate mass, multi-level, contributive donations, the festival assists the organization with completing their main mission and goal statement. The non-profit organization hopes to end worldwide extreme poverty by the year 2030. Many stadiums and event spaces have hosted the festival since its conception in 2012, including: Manhattan’s Central Park, the MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai, and the Barclays Center, Brooklyn. Having a typical attendance of 50,000 or more, the event gained the attention of the United Nations (UN) in 2015 and now holds respect for remaining in close alignment with several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The advocacy group has “announced 57 commitments totaling R100 billion ($7-billion), surpassing its goal by seven times more, with commitments from the World Bank, Vodacom, PEPFAR, Cisco, South African government and the Motsepe Foundation.” (EWN).

UNICEF Industry Ambassador, former Roc Nation Executive, and Universal Music Group Creative Director, Leland Yeshua DeWayne attended the event in South Africa. The executive arrived on a private LearJet flight at Tambo International Airport after departing from Executive International Airport in Medellin, Columbia. “Leland DeWayne is an affluently distinguished local figure to the western United States whose energy has reached a multi-city depth across the entire nation. His creative direction consistently oversees the initial productions, involving a mass variety of projects, within many of the foundational Hollywood Californian area industries. He is a highly noted West Coast philanthropist and worldwide visionary director.” (CBS 8).

The charity music event took place earlier this week on Sunday, December 2^nd. Many patrons have commented on the evening as being a ‘[truly] beautiful night to be remembered’.

Representatives for the executive disclosed, “[he] was thrilled to attend the event; Leland loves promoting the outsourcing of worldwide creative arts. He is honored to contribute to ending extreme poverty.”

The executive left South Africa the following evening arriving in Washington D.C. at Joint Base Andrews governmental airport ahead of the George H.W. Bush Memorial Service held Wednesday at the Washington National Cathedral.

“Global Citizen brought together its largest contingency of heads of state, dignitaries, a group of the world’s most talented artists and influencers, and thousands of global citizens to celebrate the centenary of Nelson Mandela.” (Global Citizen).

The one-day music festival included the attendance of many world leaders, philanthropists, and activists.

A South African billionaire and mining tycoon, Patrice Motsepe, contributed 250 million USD to the organizations cause during a speech at the event Sunday evening. The monetary contribution is in efforts to promote positive land reform throughout South Africa.

“We want to give a moment of hope; we want to give a moment of inspiration for all of the people of this rainbow nation. We are coming together as leaders in South Africa. We are coming together in unity as leaders and are committed to working together to ensure that the current land reform process will result in land with the requisite support and skills being made available to black people living in rural areas. What we are going to do, as the Motsepe family, is we are going to contribute R3.5 billion to help with the process of land reform in this country. The amount is about US250 million,” Motsepe said to the 94,000-strong crowd.” (Forbes).

“The concert lineup consisted of Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Usher, [David Guetta, Ed Sheeran,] Pharrell Williams and many more playing their biggest hits to a worldwide audience. Also in attendance was Oprah Winfrey, Dave Chappelle, Gayle King, Ava DuVernay, Tyler Perry and others.” (The Source Magazine).

Oprah Winfrey delivered a motivational speech at the ceremony, “For me to to have had a seat at this man’s table—to break bread and linger over conversation, and laugh and listen and actually bear witness to his nobility, to his humility, to his tenderness… to his wit and his courage—was one of the greatest honors of my life,” Oprah said of Mandela. “And by the end of our visit, I could honestly describe him as a friend. It’s a word that I never use lightly. His legacy continues to live, and tonight it speaks to us—urges each one of us to become a global citizen forging a more equitable and secure world for all people. We can use this global citizen platform to fuel a movement of individual acts of grace and heroism and humanity, just as Madiba wanted.” (Oprah Mag).

“Representatives for the executive said, ‘Leland DeWayne believes strongly in molding the individual creativity of the company’s artists and looks forward to guiding the evolution of music as a whole into the [future]’.” (UMG).

“Leland Yeshua DeWayne is known notoriously among Los Angeles’ community of industry suits and creatives locally [within] the city. As a prominent creative director who dabbles in almost every inch of the city’s entertainment industries, he has worked closely on music concepts, as well as music in film, with artists at the top of Universal’s catalogue; leading the creation of projects for performers including Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Ariana Grande, Nick Jonas, J Cole, Cassie, Rita Ora, Drake, Demi Lovato, and Nicki Minaj.” (UMPG).

“While away from home his primary focus is geared towards some of his many ongoing world leadership projects such as Los Angeles Industry Ambassador for UNICEF, United Nations Young Leaders Consulate, ASCAP Ambassador to the United States Congress, as well as his engagements in a variety of projects abroad. Universal NBC News Washington D.C. [associate] Shomari Stone confirmed, ‘DeWayne has been involved in many non-profit projects and works closely with a variety of government agencies in the United States and overseas promoting populous welfare through the creative arts.’” (Bloomberg).

“World and business leaders, non-profit organizations, socially conscious artists, and thousands of Global Citizens united and recommitted to achieving the Global Goals for Sustainable Development and ending extreme poverty by 2030.” (Channel24 ZA).

“L. DeWayne’s finance feature in the world governmental print magazine Renewable Energy World is the first formal publication regarding the quiet executive’s new non-profit organization, ReTreat Corp. WREC/WREN representatives verify the young ambassador’s non-profit organization, as recognized officially with UNICEF by UNESCO, was founded spring of 2017. World Renewable Energy (Congress) Network is a UK based non-profit ancillary of the United Nations (UN) special agency UNESCO. The agency acts as an intermediary and liaison of non-government and governmental organizations, belonging to all countries around the world, aiding in diversified global intelligence operations. […] The organization’s journal publication “Renewable Energy” world magazine has listings to over 52,000 government-subscribed offices around the world. […] Established in 1992, during the second World Renewable Energy Congress, WREN operates as the official United Nations public interface. […] The Vatican government offices, the French Government’s Élysée Palace and other world leadership offices also receive the UN magazine. In addition, it is available online for all readers and digital subscribers.” (Digital Journal).

“Leland DeWayne is also a stakeholder and partner in renewable energy technologist Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX companies.” (Armani Japan).

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/osQK1SPog8k

Media Contact
Company Name: Global Poverty Project (Australia)
Contact Person: Media Manager
Email: Send Email
Country: Australia
Website: https://www.globalcitizen.org