SARU President, Mr Mark Alexander and SARU Executive Committee Members present; CEO of SA Rugby, Mr Rian Oberholzer; Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Hon. McKenzy and Deputy Minister Mabe; Union Presidents and Associate Members of SARU; All SARU National Teams, the Coaching Staff and Management;
SARU Sponsors and Donors; 
All the Awards Nominees;

Ladies and Gentlemen, Good evening!

On behalf and my wife Humile and I would like to thank you for the invitation to the South African Rugby Player of the Year Awards. Tonight, we honour a legacy deeply ingrained in our country’s culture and unity, while celebrating extraordinary excellence in rugby.

Looking back, rugby in South Africa was historically intertwined with the power structures of the apartheid era. It stood as a symbol of exclusion and a reminder of the inequalities that shaped that time. 

Yet, in 1995, something extraordinary happened. I remember it as clearly as if it were yesterday. When the late President Nelson Mandela walked onto the field wearing the green Springbok jersey. A symbol that once divided us, instantly became a symbol of unityand national pride, Amabokoboko!

The victory that followed reflected South Africa’s broader journey of resilience and reconciliation. It demonstrated how shared purpose can inspire national cohesion and pride.

The 1995 Springbok triumph marked the beginning of a new era for South African rugby. Subsequently, Rugby World Cup triumphs in 2007, 2019, and 2023 reaffirmed South Africa’s excellence and strengthened our global standing. The 2023 triumph in particular, which secured a historic fourth title, cemented the Springboks as the most successful team in rugby history.

I am reciting these achievements because I believe they were made possible through discipline, commitment, and sacrifice. The same values embodied by the new generation of rugby players we honour tonight.

These sportsmen teach us that through shared purpose and collective sacrifice, South Africans can overcome challenges and achieve greatness together. Their example underscores the importance of unity in nation-building.

We must remember that nation-building is an ongoing process, one aimed at uniting a once deeply divided society into an equitable and cohesive nation. Even today, sport continues to play a vital role in the transformation of our society by promoting inclusivity and expanding opportunities. 

It is for these reasons that we continue to pay tribute to our players and to those who support them. They stand as symbols of what is possible when we unite. We urge you, as enduring bearers of hope, to continue advancing the noble work that was begun in 1995. The work of fostering a truly united and inclusive rainbow nation.

Together, we can carry this hope forward by empowering young people in our communities. Effective investment should focus on building, maintaining, and providing access to quality facilities, training coaches, and expanding participation in underserved communities. Investment in grassroots sport remains one of the most powerful catalysts for social cohesion, youth development, and economic transformation in our country.

We must therefore deliberately continue to invest in rural areas to bridge the gaps that exist in our sporting codes. 

In conclusion, allow me to extend congratulations to all award recipients. Your achievements bring pride to our nation and reaffirm rugby’s enduring place in South Africa’s story.

I thank you.
 

President Cyril Ramaphosa has in terms of section 13(1)9c) of the National Prosecuting Authority Act and after consultation set out in the legislation, appointed Mr Sonja Josiah Ntuli as Director of Public Prosecutions in Mpumalanga.
 
Mr Sonja is a lawyer with 29 years’ experience in the legal field as an attorney, and prosecutor.
 
Core to this experience is Mr Sonja’s 21 years of service in various capacities within the National Prosecuting Authority, from district court prosecutor to Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions.
 
Most recently, Mr Sonja was Acting Director of Public Prosecutions in Mpumalanga for close on three years.
 
President Ramaphosa wishes Mr Ntuli well in his role of entrenching the rule of law in the province and bringing to book persons or entities that violate the law.

Media enquiries: Vincent Magwenya, Spokesperson to the President – media@presidency.gov.za

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria

Theme: “Recentering Social Justice and Human Rights for Women and Girls”

Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Hon Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane
Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Hon Les Governder 
Chief Whip of the National Council of Provinces, Hon Kenneth Mmolemang
Presiding Officers
Honourable Members of the NCOP and provincial delegates present,

Let me start by passing our sincere condolences to the family, friends, comrades and former colleagues of our first chairperson of the NCOP, Mosiuoa lekota. We cannot speak of the South African democracy and the work of this multi-party Parliament without paying tribute to his selfless contribution. We thank him for his unwavering service to the people of South Africa. May his revolutionary soul rest in peace. 

Honourable Members, 

International Women’s Day was first observed in the early twentieth century. It was not born in ceremony, but born in struggle. It emerged from the marches of garment workers, the defiance campaigns, and the collective refusal by women across the world to accept their own erasure.

Over a century later, we gather in Parliaments, in community halls and in the streets not only to celebrate how far women have come, but to confront, with honesty, how far the world still must go.

The theme before us today, “Recentering social justice and human rights for women and girls,” is not a slogan. It is a diagnosis. It is an acknowledgement that the centre shifted. That progress, where it came, was uneven. That rights, where they were won, were not always protected. And that justice remains, for too many women and girls, a promise still deferred.

To recenter is to return, but it is also to interrogate. We must ask what displaced women and girls from the centre of our social justice agenda in the first place. The answer demands honesty.

It was the persistence of patriarchal systems that treat women’s rights as a concession rather than a constitutional imperative. It was the normalisation of violence as a private matter rather than a public emergency. It was the quiet tolerance of economic exclusion, the unpaid care burden, and the glass ceilings that keep women on the margins of opportunity and power.

Honourable Members,

Yes, policy and legal frameworks exist. They are in place through the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, the Beijing Platform for Action, the AU Agenda 2063 and our own South African Constitution. What has wavered is not the law, but the political will to enforce it, to fund it, and to live by it. 

The real test is not how well we can recite these conventions but whether a woman can walk home safely. Whether a survivor can access justice without being retraumatised. Whether a girl child can learn without fear. Whether a woman-owned enterprise can access markets, finance, and procurement without being blocked by old networks and gatekeeping.

Thirty years on, as the world marks Beijing+30, we are compelled to take stock with honesty. Progress has been made: maternal mortality has declined, girls’ enrolment in schools has improved, and women’s representation in legislatures has grown. But the progress is fragile, uneven, and in many parts of the world, it is reversing.

In fact, it would be amiss of me not to mention what a devastating time it has been for women in Sudan, The Democratic Republic of Congo, in Palestine and most recently the Middle East as well as in other regions of the world plagued by conflict. 

In these theatres of war and political upheaval, it is women and girls who bear the heaviest burden. They are displaced from their homes, stripped of access to education and healthcare, subjected to violence, and denied even the most basic forms of dignity. Conflict does not only destroy infrastructure. It erodes the social fabric that protects women. It turns their bodies into battlegrounds and their rights into collateral damage.

We must be unequivocal in our call for peace. Peace is not an abstract diplomatic ideal. It is the foundation upon which women are able to live safely, to participate economically, to raise families without fear, and to contribute meaningfully to society. Where there is no peace, there can be no justice for women. Where there is no stability, empowerment becomes an empty promise.

We therefore reiterates its principled position in support of peaceful resolution of conflicts, dialogue over destruction, and the protection of civilians, particularly women and children. We affirm that the empowerment of women must extend to every sphere of life political, social, and economic. Women must not only survive conflict; they must be included in peacebuilding, reconstruction, and governance processes. Sustainable peace is only possible when women are present at negotiation tables and in leadership structures shaping the future.Honorable Members 

In South Africa, International Women’s Day carries a particular weight and a particular promise. We placed gender equality at the heart of our democratic project as a founding principle. Our Constitution guarantees equality without qualification. Yet we remain confronted by the brutal reality of gender-based violence and femicide, the feminisation of poverty, and structural barriers that still deny dignity and opportunity to millions of women, particularly in rural and peri-urban communities.

Deputy Chairperson,

If we are serious about recentring social justice, then we must be equally serious about re-centering implementation. That is why the work of the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities which we are presenting here today is not peripheral. It is structural. Its mandate is to drive mainstreaming, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation across government, so that women’s rights are not treated as a side programme, but as a standard in every plan, every budget, and every delivery outcome. 

This is also why our focus must be practical and measurable: focusing on prevention, protection, justice, and economic power.

First, on safety and justice. South Africa has built key parts of the survivor-support ecosystem, but access remains uneven and the system remains too slow for the urgency of the crisis. The Department of Justice’s Gender-Based Violence page makes it plain that survivor support includes the Gender-Based Violence Command Centre, a 24-hour call centre that can refer cases directly to SAPS and deploy social workers, including accessible channels for persons with disabilities. 

What matters now is scale, coordination and consequence. In April 2025, the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster convened an urgent special sitting in response to escalating GBVF, and adopted a 90-day acceleration programme to fast-track implementation of the National Strategic Plan on GBVF. That intervention is not only a statement. It includes concrete measures: revitalising and reconstituting the Inter-Ministerial Committee on GBVF under the 7th Administration, establishing a dedicated GBVF Priority Committee within NATJOINTS, revitalising provincial JCPS structures, integrating GBVF statistics across the value chain from arrest to incarceration, and accelerating the rollout of Thuthuzela Care Centres across all provinces. 

Honourable Members, this is what “recentering justice” looks like in practice: a criminal justice value chain that is aligned, time-bound, measurable, and survivor-centred.

And in November 2025, the National Disaster Management Centre took a further step by classifying Gender-Based Violence and Femicide as a national disaster in terms of the Disaster Management Act. This classification is a profound acknowledgement that GBVF is not only a social crisis. It is a national emergency that demands coordinated response, mobilisation of resources, and accountability at every sphere of government.

Second, on economic justice. A society cannot claim to advance women’s rights while women remain locked out of productive assets, procurement, and finance. South Africa has placed a clear stake in the ground through policies and programmes that target women’s economic inclusion. The State of the Nation 2026 address reflects that government has put a national policy in place to ensure that 40% of public procurement goes to women-owned businesses, and that thousands of women-owned enterprises have been trained to participate in procurement opportunities. It further notes that the IDC has earmarked significant funding to invest in women-led businesses, alongside commitments by other entities to support women-owned enterprises.

This matters because procurement is not a technical matter. It is a redistribution instrument. It is a lever for inclusion. It is the difference between women being beneficiaries and women being builders of the economy.

The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI) which is multi-stakeholder programme dedicated at accelerating empowerment and development opportunities for young people. By the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, the PYEI facilitated nearly 295,000 earning opportunities for youth, most of which went to young women in particular. 

What we must do is upscale these efforts to ensure that women, particular young people are empowered in such a way that they do not fall prey to social ills which sets them up for a life of poverty and destitution. For us to do that honourable members, we must ALL be concerned with the status of women in our society. 

Deputy Chairperson,

This is where the National Council of Provinces has a decisive role. Recentring social justice is not achieved only through national declarations. It is achieved where people live. It is achieved through provincial implementation, local coordination, and budget alignment.

The NCOP must therefore use its constitutional mandate to ensure that provincial departments and municipalities do not treat women’s rights as an unfunded mandate. Oversight must ask direct questions: Are shelters funded and functional? Are police stations equipped to respond with dignity and speed? Are courts safe for survivors and witnesses, especially children? Are provinces participating in integrated GBVF reporting and case-flow management as required by the JCPS acceleration programme? Are procurement opportunities reaching women-owned enterprises outside major metros?

Honourable Members,

We must also speak plainly about the role of men and boys. We cannot build a future without confronting the socialisation that produces violence, entitlement and control. The justice system itself acknowledges programmes that focus on positively changing the attitudes of men and boys in areas with high levels of violence against women. This is not optional work. It is prevention.

To the boy child, we must say: your strength is not dominance. It is discipline. It is respect. It is accountability. It is the courage to reject peer pressure, to reject violence, and to protect the dignity of women and girls in your home, your school, your community, and online.

To fathers, brothers, coaches, faith leaders, traditional leaders and community leaders, we must say: silence is not neutrality. Silence is permission. If we are serious about ending GBVF, then positive masculinity must become a societal norm, not a campaign for 16 days.

Chairperson,

Our G20 Presidency last year provided an opportunity to elevate women’s empowerment in ways that are practical and globally relevant. The G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group Chairperson’s Statement of 31 October 2025 places the care economy and financial inclusion at the centre of women’s empowerment, and recognises the importance of shared social responsibility for caregiving, including encouraging the active engagement of men and boys in care work. It also frames women’s financial inclusion as a fundamental enabler of women’s economic empowerment and inclusive development. 

This is deeply aligned with our domestic reality: women carry disproportionate unpaid care burdens, and that burden is an economic constraint. If we want women to participate equally in the economy, we must invest in care infrastructure, remove barriers to women’s access to finance, and recognise that economic justice is a form of violence prevention.

Honourable Members,

This year also carries profound historical meaning. In 2026, we mark 70 years since the women’s march of 9 August 1956, when thousands of women, mothers, workers, organisers, and leaders marched to the Union Buildings to declare that they would not accept injustice. Their message is not only history. It is instruction. It tells us that courage is collective, and that rights are defended through action.

As we look to the year ahead, the call of this debate must be clear:
We must move from commemoration to implementation.
From promises to measurable outcomes.
From policy intent to lived reality.

We must strengthen access to justice, not only by improving laws, but by fixing the system: faster case processing, safer courts, better survivor support, integrated data, and accountable consequences for perpetrators. 

We must strengthen economic justice, not only by speaking about empowerment, but by opening procurement, expanding finance, building capability, and ensuring that women-owned enterprises can compete and win. 

We must strengthen prevention, not only by protecting women and girls, but by actively shaping the values of boys and men, and rebuilding communities that refuse violence as normal. 

And we must do so together: national government, provinces, municipalities, civil society, business, labour, communities and households.

When South Africa says we are “recentering social justice and human rights for women and girls,” we are making a declaration about the kind of country we choose to be. A country where safety is not luck. Where justice is not delayed. Where economic participation is not gatekept. Where dignity is not negotiable.

Let this House, and the society we represent, leave this debate with one shared commitment: that justice for women and girls will no longer be a deferred promise, but a lived reality.

I thank you.
 

Deputy President Shipokosa Paulus Mashatile will tomorrow, Thursday 05 March 2026, attend and hand over awards at the South African Rugby Player of the Year Awards annual ceremony at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Western Cape Province. 

The awards recognise and honour men and women in the 2025 Rugby season who demonstrated high-performance both on and off the field, rewarding players, coaches and clubs for their outstanding work throughout the season.

As a champion of social cohesion and nation building initiatives across the country, Deputy President Mashatile is expected to highlight the importance of sports, particularly Rugby, in building bridges among the different sectors of South African society and as one of the most symbolic sporting codes to unite South Africans around the National Team over the years as well as rugby's role in cementing the country's pole position as multiple Rugby World Cup Champions. 

Details of the event are as follows:

Date: Thursday, 05 March 2026
Time: 19h30 (Media to arrive at 18h30)
Venue: Cape Town International Convention Centre

For more information please contact Sindi Ximba (SARU) at Sindiswa.Ximba@sarugby.co.za or Sthembiso Sithole (The Presidency) on 078 356 4355.

Media enquiries: Mr Keith Khoza, Acting Spokesperson to the Deputy President, on 066 195 8840

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria

Deputy President Shipokosa Paulus Mashatile will on Thursday, 05 March 2026, respond to Questions for Oral Reply in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in Parliament, Cape Town.

In his capacity as Chairperson of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cabinet Committee and Leader of Government Business in Parliament, the Deputy President will address a range of critical governance and service delivery matters affecting provinces and municipalities across the country.

Among the key matters to be addressed, the Deputy President will update Members on Government strategies to prevent corruption in the South African Police Service (SAPS) and outline corrective measures implemented by the JCPS Cluster to detect and prevent corruption within SAPS and the criminal justice system as a whole.

Deputy President Mashatile will reaffirm Government’s commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the criminal justice system and ensuring that corruption within law enforcement agencies is decisively rooted out.

The Deputy President will also respond to questions regarding the escalation of illegal mining activities in Gauteng’s East and West Rand areas, including in the underlying informal settlements.

Government remains resolute in restoring order, protecting communities, and dismantling organised criminal networks that undermine economic stability and public safety.

Other matters for Oral Reply by Deputy President Mashatile include the decline and restoration of the national rail transport system; the state of distressed and dysfunctional municipalities; as well as measures to address the national water crisis and incomplete infrastructure projects.

Details of the sitting are as follows:

Date: Thursday, 05 March 2026
Time: 14h00
Venue: NCOP Chamber, Parliament, Cape Town

The Q&A Session will be streamed live on the Parliamentary Channel 408 and Parliamentary YouTube channel.

For more information please contact Sam Bopape on 082 318 5251.

Media enquiries: Mr Keith Khoza, Acting Spokesperson to the Deputy President, on 066 195 8840

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria

Programme Director,
Minister of Electricity and Energy of South Africa, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa,
Visting Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Ms Lerato Mataboge,
Leaders of business and labour,
Representatives of international organisations,
Representatives of development partners,
Members of the diplomatic corps,
Delegates,
Guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning. 

It is my pleasure to welcome you to this year’s Africa Energy Indaba.

This Indaba is an opportunity to harness our collective efforts towards realising an Africa that meets its needs for reliable and cost-effective energy, while becoming a competitive exporter of energy in a rapidly changing global market. 

There has never been a better time for Africa to advance its energy security, resilience and sustainability. 

With its abundant natural resources, our continent holds immense potential for energy generation. 

Alongside substantial oil and gas reserves, Africa has abundant solar resources, wind corridors and major river systems. 

There is an abundance of critical minerals beneath African soil that are being sought globally for technological applications, including in energy. 

Yet, alongside this natural wealth, Africa experiences energy poverty. 

More than 600 million Africans do not have access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. 

Every day without reliable power translates into lost production, interrupted services, constrained investment and reduced opportunity. 

This energy gap exists in a context of a growing continental population, rising urbanisation and renewed efforts to industrialise and integrate into the global economy. 

In this environment, access to reliable electricity is a competitive differentiator. 

Industrialisation cannot take place without secure supply chains, resilient villages, towns and cities, and reliable, affordable and scalable energy. 

Historically, much of Africa’s energy infrastructure was built to serve extractive models. 

Power systems were developed around enclaves of production, rather than around broad-based development. 

This legacy still influences the geography of opportunity.

It explains why, even where resources exist, the systems required to translate resources into prosperity have remained uneven. 

The task now is to build a different kind of energy system, one that connects Africa to itself, and one that allows our economies to grow together rather than apart. 

The African Union’s Agenda 2063 recognises that Africa’s development must rest on modern infrastructure, including energy systems that are integrated, reliable and capable of supporting industrial transformation. 

It places energy at the centre because it understands that without energy, the broader aspirations of integration, value addition and inclusive growth will remain constrained. 

The promise of Agenda 2063 is not only universal access to energy, but productive access. 

Productive access enables industry, supports competitive enterprises and creates jobs at scale. 

Productive access that allows African economies to move beyond the export of raw materials and toward the creation of value. 

This is access that supports modern public services, strengthens human development outcomes and reduces the cost of doing business. 

These outcomes depend on transmission and regional integration that allow power to move and resources to be shared. 

Across Africa, the logic of integration is already visible in the work of regional power pools and cross border interconnectors. 

These allow hydropower, solar, wind, gas and storage to support one another across borders and create a pathway to a more efficient continental system. 

An integrated system allows resources to be used more efficiently and for variable resources to be balanced across geography. 

An integrated system enables a more competitive market and spreads risk.

In this way, integration supports both affordability and reliability, which are essential to industrial competitiveness. 

The Ten-Year Africa Energy Infrastructure Investment Plan inaugurated under South Africa’s G20 Presidency is a deliberate effort to move from fragmented initiatives to a coordinated platform that can mobilise investment at scale. 

The Plan recognises that Africa’s energy needs are too large to be met by incremental projects. 

There needs to be a coherent pipeline of bankable investments, supported by credible institutions, predictable regulation and partnerships. 

Infrastructure at this scale depends on financial systems that are aligned with long term development. 

This is because energy assets require large upfront capital, long construction periods and stable revenue over many years. 

Public finance cannot fund the full scale of Africa’s infrastructure needs on its own, but it can play a catalytic role in project preparation, credit enhancement and risk reduction. 

The significance of the Ten-Year Africa Energy Infrastructure Investment Plan lies in its ability to organise the pipeline of projects in a manner that is credible to financiers and valuable to economies. 

Africa’s energy agenda must be linked to an industrial agenda. 

When the continent speaks about critical minerals, it must also speak about beneficiation. 

When it speaks about renewable resources, it must also speak about local manufacturing capacity, skills development and industrial clusters. 

When it speaks about investment, it must also speak about the institutions that can deliver projects on time, within cost and with quality. 

For the energy transition in Africa to be just and inclusive, it must support development and enable industrial growth.

The Africa Energy Indaba should be encouraging partnerships that build confidence that projects will be delivered with integrity. 

This confidence relies on planning institutions that can anticipate demand and regulators that can balance investor certainty with public interest.

Credibility needs to be built through utilities and system operators that can operate networks securely and public finance institutions that can support preparation and structure transactions. 

Complex infrastructure programmes succeed when actions match words. 

Africa needs to be known not only for its ambition, but for its ability to implement. 

The future we seek is one in which Africa is connected by infrastructure, aligned by policy and strengthened by shared investment. 

In such a future, energy becomes a bridge between regions, a platform for industrial corridors and a foundation for prosperity. 

This event is taking place at a time of heighted volatility in global energy markets. 

Africa is already experiencing the impact of the escalating conflict in the Middle East, with strains on supply chains and higher energy prices. 

As we have seen with Russia-Ukraine and during the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting geopolitical sands underscore the vulnerabilities of import-dependent economies across Africa. 

These vulnerabilities sharpen the case for regional and continental energy security and diversification. 

As such, this Indaba is timely and strategic. It is an opportunity to position our continent in a rapidly-changing geopolitical context. 

Africa has what it needs to succeed. It has resources. It has people. It has growing institutions and expanding cooperation. 

The remaining task is to match this potential with sustained implementation, to translate plans into projects, and to turn projects into reliable power that supports industry, jobs and dignity. 

The present moment calls for unity of effort. 

It calls for partnerships that recognise that Africa’s growth is not a risk to be managed, but an opportunity to be realised. 

It calls for a shift from potential to delivery, from promise to construction. 

I am confident that this Indaba will help strengthen cooperation, accelerate investment and contribute to building energy systems worthy of Africa’s promising future. 

I thank you.
 

President Cyril Ramaphosa learnt with profound sadness of the passing of Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick Lekota, former Premier of the Free State, Minister of Defence, and co-founder of the Congress of the People. Mr Lekota passed away at the age of 77 earlier today, Wednesday, 4 March 2026.

President Ramaphosa’s thoughts and prayers are with Mr Lekota’s family, the Congress of the People and his associates across the political spectrum.

“Terror” Lekota, as he was nicknamed, derived this name from his prowess in soccer, which formed part of his multifaceted life which he focused on politics and the development of the nation.

Born on 13 August 1948 in Kroonstad, Mr Lekota dedicated his youth and adult life to the struggle for liberation.

As a member of the South African Students’ Organisation and organiser for the organisation, he was prosecuted by the apartheid regime and imprisoned on Robben Island in 1974 where he spent eight years alongside struggle leadership including Nelson Mandela.

Upon his release in 1982, he returned to his life of activism and became a leading figure in the United Democratic Front.

The UDF was a non-racial, mass movement of more than 400 grassroots organisations that was established in 1983 to oppose the National Party government’s creation of the Tricameral Parliament, which purported to be racially inclusive.

Mr Lekota’s UDF involvement led to his conviction in 1988 in the four-year Delmas Treason Trial for treason, subversion and murder, as the state tried to link non-violent resistance by the UDF to violent uprisings in the Vaal.

While he was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment, his conviction and those of other trialists were overturned in 1989.

Mr Lekota was a long-serving member and National Chairperson of the African National Congress, who in the democratic era became the first Premier of the Free State from 1994 to 1996, the inaugural Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces from 1997 to 1999, and Minister of Defence in 1999, a position he held until 2008.

This was also the year in which he became the Founding President of the Congress of the People.

President Ramaphosa said: “South Africa has lost a patriot, a freedom fighter, and a servant of the people whose life story is closely intertwined with our journey of struggle and the realisation of democracy.

“His life was one of resilience, courage, and steadfast belief in justice.

“We honour him especially for his principled dedication to non-racialism during our struggle and in a liberated South Africa.

“We deeply value his service to his home province where he served as Premier and to our Armed Forces and our national security, in his role as Minister of Defence.

“He was instrumental in the establishment of the National Council of Provinces which added a new dimension of democratic inclusion to our parliamentary system and ensured communities all over our country could be heard and represented in our national legislature.

“His establishment of the Congress of the People reflected his commitment to the values and principles by which he had lived, and it added to the diversity of choices presented to the electorate as our democracy matured.

“We will remember Mosiuoa for his patriotism, his intellect, and his personable nature, and we will continue to work for the inclusive, non-racial South Africa for which he sacrificed so much and worked so passionately.”

Media enquiries: Vincent Magwenya, Spokesperson to the President - media@presidency.gov.za

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria

The Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Nonceba Mhlauli, will lead the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Debate in commemoration of International Women’s Day on Wednesday, 4 March 2026 at 14h00.

The debate will be held under the theme: “Recentering Social Justice and Human Rights for Women and Girls.”

International Women’s Day provides an important platform to reflect on progress made towards gender equality, while confronting persistent challenges that continue to undermine the rights, safety, economic participation and dignity of women and girls. The debate will focus on strengthening accountability, advancing inclusive economic participation, addressing gender-based violence and femicide, and ensuring that social justice remains central to policy implementation and public action.

The Deputy Minister will emphasise government’s ongoing efforts to advance women’s empowerment, protect constitutional rights, and accelerate programmes aimed at economic inclusion, access to education and healthcare, and leadership representation across sectors. The discussion will also reaffirm South Africa’s commitment to international and continental gender equality frameworks.

Members of the media are invited as follows:
Date: Wednesday, 4 March 2026
Time: 14h00
Venue: National Council of Provinces, Parliament, Cape Town

The debate will also be broadcast live on Parliamentary platforms.

Media enquiries: Mandisa Mbele 082 580 2213 / MandisaM@Presidency.gov.za

Issued by: The Presidency 
Pretoria

Ministers,
Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Thami Ntuli,
MECs,
Mayor of eThekwini, Mr Cyril Xaba,
Councillors,
Representatives of business and labour,
Officials,
Colleagues, 

It is a privilege to join you once again under the auspices of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group. 

Thank you to the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry for inviting us to collectively take stock of our achievements, confront continuing challenges and launch the second phase of our partnership. 

When we first met in early 2024, we were navigating uncertainty. Confidence was fragile. Service delivery challenges were acute. The future of eThekwini required urgent, coordinated action. 

Today, we gather in a changing context. 

After two years of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group, there are tangible signs that the decline has been arrested, that stability has taken root and that recovery is underway. 

The latest findings of the Durban Business Confidence Index tell an important story. Business confidence now stands at the highest level recorded since the index was established. 

This is the result of strong political leadership, administrative stability and all three spheres of Government coming together on a united mission. 

It is the result of the insistence of all social partners that eThekwini must work. 

In tourism, we have witnessed a remarkable recovery. 

I understand that during the recent festive season, eThekwini welcomed nearly 1.2 million visitors, a significant increase from the previous year. 

Occupancy rates rose to 77 percent. Tourism spend reached R2.7 billion. 

Durban is once again a destination of choice. 

In manufacturing, confidence rose by nearly 16 percent quarter-on-quarter. This matters deeply in a city that is home to the second-largest manufacturing sector in the country and whose prosperity is intrinsically linked to the Port of Durban. 

I welcome the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality’s Council approval of the Partnerships Framework in September 2025. 

This framework establishes a transparent, legally compliant system for public-private collaboration on infrastructure and catalytic projects. 

We have always maintained that water security in the metro is foundational to economic growth. 

Critical projects, like the Southern Aqueduct Upgrade, are under construction. 

Bulk dam levels remain stable. 

The structural reform of metro trading services in eThekwini is advancing.

There has been improved coordination during high-risk periods, enhanced CCTV coverage and better integrated safety planning. 

These improvements enhance investor confidence and strengthen the rule of law. 

Transnet has completed repairs to the Umlazi Canal, a critical intervention protecting the South Durban Basin’s industrial infrastructure. 

While we applaud this progress, stabilisation is not the same as transformation. 

Two-thirds of surveyed business leaders still believe that service delivery complaints may not be resolved in a reasonable timeframe. 

Environmental management, roads and water remain areas of concern. 

Non-revenue water stands at 55 percent, far above acceptable benchmarks. This represents lost revenue, lost capacity and lost opportunity. 

The second phase of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group will therefore focus on economic development. 

Through the Partnerships Framework we must unlock infrastructure investment at scale. 

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition will need to play a greater role in the Working Group as we confront illicit trade, dumping and industrial vulnerability. 

If eThekwini is to compete with other metros, we must reduce friction in development planning, accelerate approvals and reform cost structures that deter investment. 

A reform agenda in this area will form a central part our efforts in the second phase. 

Derelict and hijacked buildings in the city centre undermine tourism, reduce property values and affect investor confidence. 

Addressing problem buildings is not merely about enforcement. It is about enabling redevelopment, incentivising investment and restoring dignity to the urban core. 

This next phase will require capacity. 

I am happy to announce that the National Business Initiative will support the establishment of the Independent Public-Private Partnership Office within the City Manager’s office with technical expertise. 

We will continue to embed the Working Group’s approach within the District Development Model to ensure sustainability beyond direct Presidential oversight. 

We have always understood that partnership must be mutual. 

Government must create certainty, enforce standards and remove obstacles. 

Business must invest, innovate and uphold the highest standards of compliance and social responsibility. 

All social partners must be ready to play their part.

Colleagues, 

Two years ago, eThekwini stood at a precipice. 

Today, it stands at a threshold. 

The green shoots are visible in tourism numbers, business confidence, revenue performance and infrastructure projects underway. 

But we must not confuse early recovery with guaranteed success. 

The work ahead requires discipline. It requires courage. It requires partnership. 

The extension of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group – as requested by the social partners – is both a vote of confidence and a recognition that the journey is not yet complete. 

Together, we can move eThekwini from stabilisation to catalytic growth. 

Together, we can protect its industrial base, modernise its infrastructure, secure its water future and restore its urban core. 

And together we can ensure that eThekwini once again stands as a gateway to the continent, and as a beacon of resilience, partnership and shared prosperity. 

I thank you.

Programme Director, Mr Mbhele,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers present,
Members of the Executive Council,
Mayor of eThekwini Municipality, His Worship Cyril Xaba,
Speaker of eThekwini, Councillor Thabani Nyawose,
Councillors of the eThekwini Municipality,
Representatives of the Mandela family,
Representatives of the Tambo family,
Former Ministers Jeff Radebe and Mac Maharaj,
Members of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature,
Members of the Consular Corps,
Amakhosi Asendlunkulu present,
Leaders of business and labour,
Veterans of our struggle, 
Ladies and gentlemen,
 
Sanibonani. 

It is an honour to address you today on the historic occasion of the unveiling of these statues of Presidents Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. 

The eThekwini Municipality has bestowed this honour on these two icons in recognition of their contribution towards our struggle for freedom, social justice and the empowerment of our people. 

Monuments of this nature are important for preserving our history and heritage. They anchor the collective memory of a nation.

They are important as a public affirmation of the values which these leaders represented and the principles for which they fought. 

It was the Roman Marcus Tullius Cicero philosopher who said: "The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living."

They stand as a reminder to future generations of the road our nation has travelled and the aspirations we have for our future. 

Younger generations who did not live through the troubled times that our country went through – who did not experience apartheid or the liberation struggle – will learn through the monuments and statues of these iconic leaders.

Of course statues such as these provokes questions and initiates conversations about their value but more importantly about our past. The presence of Mandela and Tambo in bronze ensures that their stories and indeed the story of our country remains embedded in the landscape of daily life not confined to textbooks.

At today’s unveiling, we reflect on the preeminent contributions that Mandela and Tambo made to the birth of the democratic South Africa. 

It is significant that these statues are unveiled in the year that we celebrate 30 years of the adoption of our democratic Constitution. 

It was Oliver Tambo who initiated the drafting of the ANC’s Constitutional Principles, which were developed while the liberation movements were still banned and while apartheid oppression was at its height.

The Constitutional Principles anticipated the essential features of the democracy that we live in today.

And 10 years after that, it was Nelson Mandela who signed our democratic Constitution into law.

It is one of the great coincidences of our history that the two partners of Mandela and Tambo Attorneys were each to play such pivotal parts in the development and adoption of our democratic Constitution.

The relationship between Mandela and Tambo was founded in a desire for justice.

Through their law firm, they fought for the rights of the poor and marginalised, the oppressed and dispossessed.

As young leaders, they were united in the defiance of unjust laws and in forging a vision of a South Africa which belongs to all who live in it and where the people shall govern.

As leaders of the ANC and founders of Umkhonto we Sizwe, they took up arms against an apartheid state that was intent only on violent repression.

Even as they were separated for close on three decades, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo remained resolutely committed to the same cause. They fought the same struggle for liberation, and they strived towards the same vision.

It is therefore fitting that they are memorialised in this way in the same city.

While these statues honour great leaders of our past, they retain great meaning in our present.

They remind us of what we value as a society.

They were leaders that celebrated the diversity of South Africa’s people.

They dedicated their lives to the fight against racism, tribalism and sexism.

They sought to break down the divisions between African, coloured, Indian and white; between women and men; between the poor and the wealthy.

Today, we are called upon to embrace their vision and continue their struggle towards a South Africa that is a home to all its people.

Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo were men of peace.

They sought to resolve conflict through dialogue.

These men of peace would have been gravely concerned by the conflict underway in the Middle East. 

They would have called for the United Nations Charter to be respected and upheld.

They would have joined us in calling for an immediate ceasefire and for the conflict to be resolved through meaningful and earnest negotiations.

Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo were leaders of integrity and honesty.

They sought no rewards for themselves. Only freedom for their people.

For this, they endured great hardships and made great sacrifices.

These are leaders that we need today. Leaders that will serve. Leaders that are selfless. Leaders that are honest and ethical.

As we build great statues of these leaders, we must understand that the most powerful and enduring monument to their leadership is in following their example.

We must seek to be leaders like them, to be activists like them, to be citizen like them.

We must realise that greatness is to be found not just in the celebrated victories of history, but in the many acts of committed service to the cause of human development.

These statues call on us not to be mere admirers. Not to be mere praise singers.

But to be active citizens in building a better nation, a better continent and a better world.

The National Development Plan reminds us that: 

“Leadership does not refer to one person, or even a tight collective of people. It applies in every aspect of life.” 

As we look at these statues, we are compelled to be active citizens and trustworthy, dedicated leaders.

We unveil these statues knowing that people from across our country and across the world will come to see them.

eThekwini is one of the premier tourist destinations in our country and we can anticipate that these statues will contribute to exceptional growth in tourism. 

They will contribute to a revival of the fortunes of the city as it works to tackle some of the challenges of recent years.

We know that the city’s beaches have just had a bumper season. 

It is said that more than 6.8 million people visited the beaches and the promenade over the festive season and that more that 1.2 million bathers were recorded at the municipality’s swimming pools.

This is a sign both of what the city has to offer and the hard work that has been done by all stakeholders to ensure that eThekwini is a place that people want to visit. 

I am therefore pleased to announce that eThekwini will be the venue for the 46th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community – SADC – to be held in August 2026.

This is a worthy recognition of the progress that has been made together with all social partners in restoring confidence in the city and encouragement to complete the work.

We look forward, as the chair of SADC, to invite leaders from across the region to gather here in eThekwini – where the African Union was launched – to deliberate on issues that are critical to the growth and development of Southern Africa.

This would be a fitting tribute to the legacy of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo.

To everyone who has been involved in this project, I want to say thank you for your dedication to see these statues taking their rightful place here. 

The challenge is to market these statues not only as tourist attractions but as part of the story of our struggle for freedom. 

It was in this city that Nelson Mandela spent his last night before his arrest at Howick on the 5th of August 1962, having visited to brief Chief Albert Luthuli on his clandestine travels to different African countries.

It was in this city that Madiba made his iconic call for the people of this province to end the violence that had cost so many lives.

It was here, within weeks of his release from prison in 1990, that Madiba said:

“My message to those of you involved in this battle of brother against brother is this: take your guns, your knives, and your pangas, and throw them into the sea… End this war now!”

And it was in this city in July 1991 that Oliver Tambo handed over the Presidency over the ANC to Nelson Mandela at the organisation’s 48th National Conference.

In erecting these statues, we are indeed affirming the importance of preserving our heritage for the benefit of future generations. 

Having Mandela’s and Tambo’s statues in the same city honours their distinct but interlocking contributions and roles in the liberation struggle and strengthens our collective public memory. 

These statues are more just art. 

These statues are promises – promises made by a free people to themselves that they will not forget what it cost to be free. 

The erection of the statues is an act of national gratitude of saying to those who gave everything and to the Mandela and Tambo families, that we do remember the sacrifices that they made by both these leaders and their families. 

It is also a reminder to those who have yet to inherit this democracy, that freedom was not free, and that those who fought for freedom deserve to be seen. 

We therefore deserve to see Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo across various landscapes of our beautiful country lest we forget.

In stone and bronze, we continue to write our history, not the history of those who held power unjustly but the history of those who refused to let injustice have the final word.

But we are also telling the world we will continue to honour the heroes and heroines of our struggle. 

As we face the challenges of today and tomorrow, we are standing on the shoulders of these brave men and women.

Their lives will continue to inspire and encourage us as we strive together for a better world. 

It is said that a nation that forgets its past has no future. We choose to have a future by remembering our past.

Ngiyabonga.

I thank you.