By: Natasha Archary
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s message to South Africans on Mandela Day 2023 calls for unity in working towards peace in Tata’s memory.
Ramaphosa asked that the country remembers Madiba by striving for peace in the world and an end to conflict everywhere in order to be a testament to the late former President’s role as a revered statesman, but above all a peacemaker.
Tuesday, 18 July would have been Madiba’s 105th birthday, and the day has since been declared Mandela Day, when South Africans take the initiative to give 67 minutes to a charitable act or service.
The 67 minutes symbolically represent the number of years the former President fought for human rights and the abolition of apartheid.
In his message on Mandela Day, Ramaphosa said, “Today we commemorate President Nelson Mandela’s birthday.
Such is his towering legacy that it is a day celebrated around the world, with its international observance having been declared by the United Nations in 2009.
Striving for peace in the world, for an end to conflicts everywhere, and for a true international fellowship of humankind are the ideals that Nelson Mandela stood for.They were relevant when he was a statesman on the world stage, and they are even more relevant today with many parts of our continent and the world embroiled in conflict.
As South Africa we hold fast to the ideal that a better world can be achieved through engendering peace. This derives from negotiation and compromise over violence, the use of force and resorting to war.
South Africa’s contribution to world peace is through supporting societies in conflict, and this is largely as a result of the Nelson Mandela legacy.
Our experience with negotiating an end to apartheid and with building a multiparty democracy is regularly sought out by parties seeking to bring conflict to an end.”
Government has planned a number of events to mark Mandela Day including planting of trees across various schools, a candle-lighting ceremony to remember Tata, and a number of community clean-up projects.
Ramaphosa reminded South Africans of Madiba’s message for peace before he passed on 05 December 2013, at his Houghton Estate in Johannesburg.
“President Mandela said that, ‘the heroes are those who make peace and build.’
We will continue to follow in his footsteps by calling for political solutions to conflicts. We are fortified by the towering moral courage of great leaders like President Mandela. That is why on this Nelson Mandela Day, I call on each and everyone of us to promote peace everywhere.
The peacemaking and peacebuilding processes we are called upon to get involved in, are the fruit of Nelson Mandela’s legacy.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Mandela Day
