THOHOYANDOU - African leaders convened in the University of Venda's senate chamber to pay tribute to the late Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, during the four days' conference that ended last Friday.

The University of Venda hosted the conference, which was aimed at honouring Nyerere and preserving peace, unity and stability in the whole African continent. Mr JW Butiku, the executive Director of Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, represented the Tanzanian government.

MEC Collins Chabane recalled the good deeds that Nyerere had done to the wondering ANC and PAC cadres who fled to Tanzania for shelter during the apartheid regime. By that time, those freedom fighters could not go to Mozambique due to the Nkomati Accord.

"Now we are in a democratic country where people regardless of race, tribe and gender have to live in harmony. We are Africans and we have to stick on our culture and forget about the European culture we had adopted". Nyerere proved his worth by uniting Africans and is up to us to stop genocide in Rwanda, Angola, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo. At Kigali people are fighting each other and thousands of them are crossing the border to South Africa daily, he said.

Nyerere was leading about 123 tribes in Tanzania and has played an important role in the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now AU.