By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in marking Reconciliation Day, has urged South Africans to engage honestly with the country’s complex past.
The commemoration took place at the Ncome Museum, Nquthu Local Municipality, within the uMzinyathi District in KwaZulu-Natal.
This year’s theme enshrines on the call for South Africans to deepen commitment to unity, healing, forgiveness and nation-building for shared future.
The selection of the Battle of Blood River heritage site at the Ncome Museum signifies the value of cherishing unity and peace collectively as South Africans.
The fierce battle between the Voortrekker invaders and the Zulu forces unfolded 187 years ago in 1838 and marked a historical episode that shaped differing and often divisive commemorative customs for more than a century.
However, as a part of redressing the past injustices in South Africa, the democratic government redefined the day in 1995 as the National Day of Reconciliation onwards.
That was a unifying effort to transform the day from a symbol of division into a transformative platform for truth, justice, dialogue, healing and a shared nationhood.
Hosting the 2025 programme at Ncome reaffirms this commitment and invites the nation to engage honestly with its complex past while advancing a future rooted in inclusion, understanding and unity.
In his address, Ramaphosa said that commemorating the 16th of December provides the country with an opportunity to confront the past with honesty, acknowledge the complexities of our shared history and commit to building a peaceful future together.
“Our democracy was built on reconciliation. South Africans bear scars of centuries of dispossession and oppression, of resistance being met with batons and bullets.
“Fellow South Africans, there are those, inside and outside our country, who are trying their utmost to paint a false picture of us as the South African people.
“They do not tell us what the surveys say: that the majority of South Africans are hopeful about the state of our democracy. They do not tell us that the majority of South Africans believe race relations have improved since 1994.
“They do not show the pictures of African, white, Indian and coloured children learning together, studying together and playing together,” Ramaphosa said.
“They do not want to talk about the friendships, neighbourliness and kindness shown by black and white towards each other. They don’t want to play all the social media clips we are seeing of young Afrikaners in veldskoens dancing to amapiano, and white teenagers speaking fluent isiZulu with their friends.
“Our country’s detractors are not talking about successful land restitution, of communities sharing the land and of successful black farmers, “Ramaphosa said.
“Instead, they are painting a false picture designed to sow fear and hatred. We must not let them succeed in their efforts. If we continue and together, we build our nation as South Africans, there will be no one who will be able to plant the seed of discrimination and exclusiveness amongst us.”
Ramaphosa said that South Africa is a country of many diverse views where people not only understand our history in different ways, but also experience the reality of the present in different ways.