By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: George Town University.
President Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia, 2016 Nobel Peace Laureate and Chair of The Elders confirmed as the speaker for the 24th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture.
The Lecture will take place on Friday, 6 November 2026 in Cape Town and will form part of the One Young World Summit, which brings together more than 2,000 young leaders from over 190 countries.
This year’s Lecture will explore the theme “When is silence complicity?”, inviting reflection on the boundaries between non-interference and moral responsibility at a time of conflict, authoritarianism, human rights violations and growing geopolitical instability.
For more than two decades, the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture has continued the Foundation’s longstanding tradition of bringing together leaders, thinkers and changemakers to reflect on the defining challenges of our time and the kind of leadership needed to meet them.
When is silence complicity?
The theme draws inspiration from an address delivered by Nelson Mandela in Burkina Faso in 1998, in which he confronted the tension between national sovereignty and the responsibility to act when people face violence and oppression.
Mandela argued that the principle of sovereignty could not be used to prevent others from acting when people were being slaughtered to protect tyranny.
Nearly three decades later, the question remains deeply relevant. When does choosing not to act become a form of complicity? And when does taking action become a form of interference?
These questions are made more complex by histories of colonialism and neoimperialism, as well as foreign interventions undertaken in the name of justice that have themselves caused harm.
The Lecture will consider these tensions at both an individual and global level: from how people respond to injustice in their communities and societies, to questions of foreign policy, humanitarian responsibility, sovereignty and global governance.
About the speaker
Juan Manuel Santos served as President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for his efforts to end more than five decades of civil war through the peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla movement. He currently serves as Chair of The Elders, the group of independent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007 to work for peace, justice, and human rights.
Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi, Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said:
“For more than two decades, the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture has created a platform for engaging some of the defining questions of our time.”
“President Santos brings to this year’s Lecture a lived understanding of the difficult choices involved in conflict, peace and reconciliation. At a time when the world is confronting violent conflict, authoritarianism and profound questions about our responsibility to one another, we believe the question ‘When is silence complicity?’ demands serious engagement.”
“We are also pleased to be partnering with One Young World to bring this conversation into a gathering of young leaders from across the world, while continuing the Lecture’s tradition of engaging audiences far beyond the room.”
Kate Robertson, Co-Founder and CEO of One Young World:
“As South Africans living under the apartheid regime we saw the leadership of one man grasp the arc of history and bend it toward justice. Nelson Mandela’s example; his refusal to stay silent in the face of injustice, and his insistence that freedom anywhere is bound up with freedom everywhere inspired me to co-found One Young World. It is, therefore, the greatest of privileges that this year’s Summit will play host to this most treasured of national events.
“It is fitting that this year’s lecture returns to a question he wrestled with throughout his life: when does our silence make us complicit? For the One Young World delegates gathering in Cape Town, a city that itself carries the weight and the hope of Mandela’s legacy, this is an urgent question they must confront as they take responsibility for shaping the world’s future.”
About the Nelson Mandela Annual Memorial Lecture
The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture is one of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s flagship platforms for public dialogue.
Established in 2003, the Lecture provides a platform for leaders, thinkers and changemakers from around the world to engage critical social, political and economic questions and consider what Nelson Mandela’s legacy demands of us in the present. Over more than two decades, the Lecture has been delivered by prominent global figures including Barack Obama, António Guterres, Malala Yousafzai, Thomas Picketty and Mia Mottley, among others.