The Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation extends its condolences to the staff of Cape Town’s District Six Museum on the death of the museum’s new executive director, Siddeeq Railoun, who passed away on 23 August 2021 of complications related to Covid-19.
Railoun passed away after only three months at the District Six Museum, which tells the critical story of a community destroyed by apartheid’s cruel laws.
The museum is a physical and philosophical neighbour to the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. Both institutions are working to ensure that South Africa’s painful history – in which people’s skin colour was used to separate them from each other, physically, socially and culturally – is remembered as a lesson. And both are working towards a society based on the values of ubuntu, forgiveness and solidarity.
Our hearts go out to Railoun’s loved ones, and his colleagues at the District Six Museum. Railoun joined the museum in May 2021, appointed to guide it towards financial stability in this time of economic turmoil, and in the wake of 2020, which was a very difficult year for so many organisations.