South Africans across the country commemorated Reconciliation Day on Tuesday, 16 December 2025.
The MK party says reconciliation cannot be celebrated while apartheid-era injustices, land dispossession and economic exclusion persist.
South Africans across the country commemorated Reconciliation Day on Tuesday, 16 December 2025.
It was established in 1995 to foster national unity and healing following the end of the apartheid regime.
‘True liberation’
MK party national spokesperson, Nhlamulo Ndhela, said the party rejects the “so-called Day of Reconciliation.”
“Reconciliation cannot be commemorated in a country where Black people are still denied land ownership, subjected to high levels of unemployment and still endure hunger and poverty. Freedom remains unattained as long as the Black majority remains economically shackled.
“True liberation will only be realised when the Black child is born into dignity, security and opportunity, not into inherited inequality and deprivation in the land of his ancestors,” Ndhela said.
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Reconciliation Day
Ndhela said the party refuses to celebrate a day that ignores the “deep-rooted injustice faced by the country’s black forefathers.
“Instead, we urge our people to confront the ongoing structural oppression that continues to define South Africa.
“To celebrate under these conditions dishonours the sacrifices of our ancestors who gave their lives in pursuit of justice, humanity and self-determination,” Ndhela said.
Nation building
While the MK party rejected the commemoration of Reconciliation Day, other political parties viewed the day as vital to unity and nation-building.
During his keynote address at the national commemoration of Reconciliation Day at the Ncome Museum in Nquthu, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South Africans to focus on nation-building efforts rather than false narratives about the country.
Ramaphosa called on South Africans to fight back against such false narratives.
Unity
He said there are people outside our country who are trying their utmost to paint a “false picture of 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.
“These people do not show the pictures of African, white, Indian and coloured children learning together, studying together and playing together,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa renewed his call for deeper national unity. South Africa, facing the past, remains key to building a more united and inclusive future.
Additional reporting by Vhahangwele Nemakonde
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