1 to 31 December
South Africa will mark National Reconciliation Day on 16 December 2023 to promote social cohesion, healing, unity and nation-building. This year’s focus is on the critical role played by South African citizens in advancing democracy and ensuring that their voices are heard and incorporated into daily decisions aimed at improving peoples’ lives.
This year’s Reconciliation Day will be held under the theme “Strengthening unity and social cohesion in a healing nation” and the main event will be held in Vhembe District, Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo.
National Reconciliation Day was adopted at the start of our democracy when it was envisioned that reconciliation, peace and stability would be a defining character of our new democratic dispensation. Each year we have an opportunity to reach out to one another to deal with our past, reconcile and build a new nation.
This vision of a nation reconciled is embedded in our democratic Constitution. In South Africa, we not only commemorate Reconciliation Day but also dedicate the entire month of December to reconciliation.
- On 16 December the nation will celebrate Reconciliation Day to continue our drive to foster greater unity and nation building.
- Each year, we have an opportunity to reach out to one another to deal with our past, reconcile and build a new nation.
- Our goal as South Africans should be to promote inclusive nation-building and social cohesion.
- This generation must continue to work towards a society free from racial, social, economic and class barriers.
- It is an opportunity to celebrate how far we have come in building a cohesive and united society.
Reconciliation is also about each person taking the responsibility to fight racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in the country
We have a duty to build a united and cohesive nation.
