President Ramaphosa to officiate reburial ceremony of Khoi & San ancestral human remains

President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Monday, 23 March 2026, officiate the reburial ceremony of Khoi & San ancestral human remains to be held at Kinderlê Monument, Steinkopf, Northern Cape Province.

The ancestral remains of those to be reburied total 63, following repatriation over successive periods from museums in Europe. 

These remains are a small group of thousands of illegally removed remains of indigenous people during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. 

After they were illegally dug from their graves, the remains would be traded or donated to newly established museums and universities.

For the San & Khoi people, these violations did not begin in the modern apartheid era but date back centuries with colonial conquest, land dispossession, cultural erasure, removal, race-based scientific research, and the exploitation of ancestral remains. 

The process of repatriation and reburial of these human remains has been jointly facilitated by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) and its entities: the South African Heritage Resources Agency and Iziko Museums.

The Northern Cape Task Team, a representative body of various Khoi and San cultural groupings, has provided the necessary cultural guidance and oversight.

This repatriation programme forms part of a broader national commitment to honour those who sacrificed their lives in the fight for freedom, ensuring that they are returned to their homeland with the dignity and respect they deserve. 

The reburial is deeply significant and resonates with the commemorative spirit of Human Rights Month. Human Rights Day commemorates the struggle against dispossession, violence and the denial of dignity. 

The reburial ceremony will take place as follows:
Date: Monday, 23 March 2026
Time: 10h00
Venue: Kinderlê Monument, Steinkopf, Northern Cape

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

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria