South Africa mourns the passing of former Deputy President David Mabuza.
• Former Deputy President David Mabuza passed away at the age of 64, on Thursday, 3 July 2025, following a short illness.
• Government extends its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of former Deputy President David Mabuza.
• David Mabuza served as the Deputy President of South Africa from 2018–2023.
• David Mabuza will be remembered for his outstanding contribution to the fight against apartheid, and for his exemplary leadership and patriotism.
• He dedicated his life to the service of the nation and leaves behind a legacy of humility, service, and commitment to the ideals of our constitutional democracy.
• Throughout his political career, he worked tirelessly to make a lasting impact on the lived reality of people.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a State Funeral Category 2 to honour the former Deputy President of the Republic.
• The South African Police Service will provide ceremonial elements during the funeral service for the former Deputy President, which will take place in Mpumalanga.
• President Ramaphosa has declared that Days of National Mourning be observed from Monday 07 July 2025, and that flags be flown at half-mast around the country until the evening of Saturday, 12 July 2025.
• Deputy President Mabuza served the people of Mpumalanga as Premier from 2009 to 2018, and previously as a Member of the Executive Council of Mpumalanga across a range of portfolios.
• He applied his leadership and mobilisation abilities as the Leader of Government Business in Parliament, along with leading the South African National Aids Council.
• Deputy President Mabuza frequently represented South Africa on global platforms and consolidated relations between South Africa and its closest partners.
David Mabuza served our nation with distinction.
• He was a leader who was grounded in activism during the early stages of his political career, and who came to lead our nation and shape South Africa’s engagement with our continental compatriots and the international community in his role as Deputy President.
• He represented our country with passion and was instrumental in advancing South Africa’s place in the world.
• We appreciate his deep commitment to the liberation struggle and to the development of an inclusive, prosperous, and democratic state.
• The former Deputy President was well loved and showed genuine care and affection for all he interacted with.
David Mabuza played a major role in ensuring our freedom and our constitutional democracy.
• David Mabuza was born in 1960 in Phola near Hazyview Mpumalanga and was the third son out of five.
• He was a mathematics teacher who cut his anti-apartheid activism in the Azanian Students Organisation (Azaso) in his youth in the 1980s, and later joined the Congress Movement, led by the ANC.
• Mabuza was one of the early pathfinders of our democracy and was an instrumental part of the post-apartheid confidence-building process.
• After the first democratic elections in 1994, he was deployed to the government to help realise the promise of the Freedom Charter, whose 70th anniversary we mark this year.
• He was a prominent leader who brought a wealth of experience from his work in government.
• He played a significant role as a unifier both at home and on the continent.
• In his role as South Africa’s Special Envoy to South Sudan, he pushed for the parties in Sudan to agree to a Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity Agreement.
• He played an instrumental role in capacitating traditional leaders to advance development in the Mpumalanga Province.
Let us celebrate David Mabuza’s life and recommit ourselves to living his legacy.
• David Mabuza was a patriot and freedom fighter who dedicated his life to serving South Africans.
• David Mabuza belongs to a generation that challenged the unjust status quo under apartheid and all South Africans are indebted to the role he played in the liberation of our country.
• His passing is a call for our younger generation to take up the unfinished work of his generation to grow the economy, which will benefit everyone.
• He chose far-flung areas of South Africa that were hard to reach, that was an intentional act as these were communities that needed assistance the most.
• He used his skills in building partnerships to assist in the formal launch of the South African National AIDS Council Private Sector Forum, which marked a turning point in the role of business in the country’s response to HIV and TB.
• Through our actions, we can continue the powerful legacy that David Mabuza and many others entrusted to us by ensuring a just and fair society for all.
• Working together, we can grow South Africa to overcome the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty, and inequality.
• We must continue to strive for a nation that works for all, built on the values of democracy, freedom, and equality, as we pursue a better South Africa and a better world.
