Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe.
Image: GCIS
Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, represented President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Freedom Day celebrations in Ermelo, where he spoke out against racism and segregation in South Africa.
The 2025 national Freedom Day celebrations were held at the AJ Swanepoel Stadium in Ermelo, Msukwaligwa Local Municipality within the Gert Sibande District Municipality in Mpumalanga, where Mantashe delivered the keynote address.
“The fact that we have a history of reconciliation over revenge, that is what we are celebrating. It is our choice for reconciliation over revenge, healing over hatred; you heal, you do not continue hating, peace over conflict. Right-wing fringes regard this gesture as cowardice rather than a noble one. That is why you find some of the people talking of an Orania, a piece of land in the Northern Cape.
“They want to create it as some land that is independent. Actually, If I would be president for more than three hours, I would declare that people must go and build in Orania. Black people must go and build there. They (would) appreciate that hatred can never survive peace. It is peace that builds a nation,” said Mantashe.
“Others go over to America and ask for their makhulu baas (President Donald) Trump to punish us, but they stay here. Now they are told to go there and be refugees, they are refusing. They must go. We are a free country, we are a sovereign country and we are not a province of the United States. That sovereignty will be defended.”
He added: “On this Freedom Day, there is so much we still need to remember and celebrate. Even now, there are people who seek to drive a wedge between us, who seek to rekindle the embers of racial bitterness.”
He said these efforts will fail, adding that history records how people of all races fought against oppression and injustice.
“On this day we honour those who sacrificed, dreamed and believed in the promise of a better South Africa free of racial division. It took individuals from across our country, religious leaders, traditional leaders, political activists young and old, workers and ordinary citizens to guide our country to democracy,” he said, noting that in a few days the country will commemorate 110 years since the birth of Beyers Naude, an Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist.
“He was an Afrikaner clergyman whose father helped found the Broederbond, the secretive society that orchestrated and perpetuated apartheid. As a person who occupied a prominent position in apartheid society, and who counted HF Verwoerd as among his university lecturers, Oom Bey (Naude) would go on to play a significant role in fighting the unjust system from which he was a beneficiary."
Cape Times