Gauteng state of readiness

The Gauteng Provincial Government joins the people of South Africa in mourning the passing of former President Nelson Mandela. As we mourn his passing, we also take this opportunity to celebrate his life, rejoice over the great feats that we have recorded in nearly two decades of democracy, take stock of the present challenges and reflect on the future we collectively seek to achieve.

The Gauteng province is an important part of the tapestry of our struggle against segregation and apartheid and our collective quest to build a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

Mandela spent a great deal of his life as a worker in the mines, as a student at university and as a leader of the African National Congress residing in what is today known as Gauteng. There is an unbreakable thread between his life history and the trajectory of our struggle as a people and how it unfolded within this province.

It is in this province that Mandela’s vision of the unity of the oppressed across the racial spectrum took root and found practical manifestation. Some of the epoch making developments under apartheid took place within the geographic confines of what is today known as the Gauteng province.

To our hero we say thank you for sharing your magnificent life journey with us. We are proud of belonging to a nation that has given the world a leader of your stature and caliber. As a people, we are proud of having succumbed to your leadership without hesitation and walking this journey in some sad and testing days and many of the brilliant and watershed moments in our journey as a people.

Planned activities in honouring and celebrating his life are as follows: