MK party leader Jacob Zuma. Picture: Emmanuel Croset / AFP 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. 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. 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.
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“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. While the MK party rejected the commemoration of Reconciliation Day, other political parties viewed the day as vital to unity and nation-building.
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