Ngwane was elected with three other members - Dr Melakou Tegngem from Ethiopia, Ms Evelyne Neisere from Kenya and Ms Juliet Nakoto Odol from Uganda - during a Board meeting that held in Kampala, Uganda from 8th to 9th February 2019. According to the Executive Director of Minority Rights Group Africa Mrs. Agnes Kibajuni, Ngwane’s election into the Board brings a new vision and fresh impetus that would combine practitioner track expertise and academic policy in the pursuit of the objectives of Minority Rights Group International London in general and Minority Rights Group Africa in particular.
Minority Rights Group is an international non-governmental organisation working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples as well as promoting cooperation between communities worldwide. It shall be celebrating its fifty years of existence in April 2019. The Regional Office of the Minority Rights Group in Africa is based in Kampala, Uganda while other offices are located in Brussels, Hungary and Delhi.
Throughout its ten years of existence Minority Rights Group Africa has worked in the areas of land rights (in Cameroon it works with MBOSCUDA), ethnic, indigenous and linguistic minorities within Africa. Of concern to the Board members was the shrinking space of civil society organisations due to political intolerance and government highhandedness.
The Executive Director of Minority Rights Group Africa made an overview of the minority rights situation in Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Ethiopia and South Sudan with a clarion call for the respect of minority voices and views.
It is expected that Mwalimu George Ngwane’s election into the Board of Trustees shall open windows into the minority rights situation especially within the Central Africa sub region.
