Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale will from this weekend join a climate change expedition consisting of renowned global scientists, business people, philanthropists, artists and global decision makers and thought leaders to the Antarctica.

The aim of the expedition, dubbed Destination: Reality 2012, is to reveal the full truth about the climate change crisis facing the world and to try remove any doubts that still exist around the seriousness of this issue.

The team is convened by Founder and Chairman of The Climate Reality Project, Nobel Peace Prize winner, an Oscar Award winner for a documentary on climate change and former Vice President of the United States of America, Al Gore.

It consists, among others, of Virgin Group Founder Richard Branson, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres, President of Iceland Ōlafur Ragnar Grīmsson, Chairman of the Turner Foundation Ted Turner.

In a letter to Expedition members, Mr. Gore says he was last in the Antarctica in 1988 and was looking forward to learning from the world scientists and a “very select group of extra-ordinary individuals” as they developed and shared new ways to confront and solve the climate change crisis.

“Ashore in Antarctica, we will explore its many natural wonders and observe, first hand, the dramatic impacts of climate change on the continent, and learn about what they mean for the world as a whole,” he writes.

The 116-strong group will depart for the Antarctica from Ushuaia in Chile aboard the National Geographic Explorer on the 29th of January and return on the 5th of February, 2012.

Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile will be acting minister during this period.

ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

For more information please call Xolani Xundu at (012) 421 1339 or 083 788 5747