22 May 2025

Honourable Members,

I would like to start by reminding us all of our pledge to work diligently towards creating a Better Africa, and a Better World.  This is an important principle for those who suffered under the chains of colonialism and apartheid.

Yesterday’s meeting between President Ramaphosa and President Donald Trump was a moment of clarity on the global stage. Our President used the opportunity to reaffirm that South Africa remains a country governed by the rule of law, where the rights of all who live within our borders are protected by a progressive Constitution. His message was clear: our democracy cannot be defined by misinformation or distorted narratives, but by the principles of justice, inclusion, and shared dignity that we continue to uphold. As the Freedom Charter boldly declares, “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.”

Honourable Members,

Africa Day is an opportune time to reflect on the journey we have traversed as a people, and to recommit ourselves to seeking solutions that correct the injustices of the past, and yield African solutions to African problems. This is whatour forebears did when they founded the AOU on the 25th of May, 1963, in Addis Ababa.

Today we are still calling for justice – a justice that is comprehensive, tangible, and can be felt, and that does more than pay lip service to the cause of equality and human dignity. We are seeking reparations as part and advancing South Africa’s G20 theme of solidarity, equality, and sustainability.

Honourable Members,

The calls for reparations that have been echoing across our continent are a principled demand anchored in the provisions of international law, which recognises the principle of historical justice. We do not exist in a vacuum; we are viscerally attached to the history that shaped us. Those of us who were beaten down by colonialism and apartheid have risen; it has taken us generations, but here we stand, still smarting under its effects, but united in our assertions of our humanity and our right to justice. What our forebears suffered, we are going to correct. Our claim is not an outlandish one, but firmly rooted in international law and the United Nations Charter.

As the United Nations has declared, the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism, and apartheid were crimes against humanity, and a cruel and systematic way of dispossessing enormous numbers of people of their land, possessions, and humanity.  The industrialised economies of the Global North were built on the backs of African people. The continent remained underdeveloped because of  the extraction of our mineral resources and the exploitation of our labour, leaving the continent excluded from the productive sectors of the world economy.

It is in this context that we approach the theme of reparative justice. Even at the most basic level, justice demands that a crime committed, no matter how long ago, is brought to light and that justice is served in the way deemed most appropriate to the circumstances. In this case, we seek reparations, not in a punitive way, but as an expression of simple justice. There has to be accountability for historical crimes, and reparations have to be made where untold suffering was caused – especially given that the effects still run so deep.  Our continent suffered for centuries under racial dispossession. This dispossession was not only economic but cultural, eviscerating our most treasured cultural beliefs and practices. This was a deliberate move to add  indirect rule to direct rule, and ensure the internal weakening of our resistance. With our core beliefs and culture attacked, derided and weakened through domination, the only way to reclaim our status as a people was to gallantly fight this heartless, oppressive system that kept us under the boot through successive generations.

Reparations also speak to financial disfranchisement. Financial means make possible a re-empowerment of marginalised communities through a restoration of dignity and  the construction of a better Africa for the future. As members of this House, it is essential that we play a leading role in restructuring the uneven distribution of economic development by dismantling the legacy of colonial hierarchies. We need to replace these hierarchies with a system that reflects the aspirations of all people in a rules-based social and economic system that recognises the essential worth of every human being.

Honourable Members,

South Africa is not alone in initiating a dialogue on reparations. Our  plight, and our call, is echoed by numerous voices in the African diaspora, and across the Global South. In 2021 the African Union resolved on a declaration for renewed calls for restorative justice.

Honourable Members.

Since its foundation in 1912, the African National Congress has been committed to the principle of Pan-Africanism. Our vision is to unite the oppressed from all walks of life and on this basis,  we have forged progressive alliances throughout the continent and the world. When we were banned in the 1960s and had to undergo an external mission, we found solidarity and training among countries such as Ghana, Tanzania, Algeria and others, who hosted our representatives and allowed us to set up military camps within their borders.

We cannot forget this African unity that carried us through our darkest periods of exile while we waged an armed struggle on the domestic front. This same solidarity with our African brothers and sisters propels us in our calls for reparations. We do this not only for ourselves but for all who suffered under the jackboot of colonialism, and are still feeling the effects, no matter how much our detractors would like to dismiss this idea. As one of the most successful economies on the continent, we have a moral duty to show leadership in this regard.

Honourable Members,

In multilateral platforms such as the African Union, the United Nations, and now as chair of the G20, we must continue to advance calls that seek to promote global reforms, especially for countries in the Global South. As a House, we acknowledge the strides made by institutions such as the African Union, and must build upon them. Agenda 2063 of the African Union places heritage restitution at its centre.

South Africa needs to be at the forefront of the call for financial and cultural reparations. Guided by our foreign policy, we take on this role in a spirit of diplomacy and dialogue, as this is far more appropriate and ultimately effective  than confrontation. Our resolve is firm, but our modus operandi is collaborative and respectful.

In closing, Honourable members, it is our duty to ensure Africa Day is not only symbolic, but becomes a day of substantial action in the cause for Africa. The time has come for Africa’s contributions to the current world order be recognised and to carve our rightful place in world affairs.

May this Africa Day be a reminder of who we are as a people and what we can achieve when we are in it together. As President Cyril Ramaphosa often reminds us, “Africa’s time has come. It is up to us to make it a reality.”

I thank you.