'our Apartheid Wounds Are Being Exploited:' Ramaphosa In Freedom Day Address

South Africas apartheid wounds are being exploited to serve the agenda of others, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said in his 2025 Freedom Day address .

Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe delivered the address on behalf of Ramaphosa on Sunday 27 April in Ermelo, Mpumalanga.

The President was unable to attend the event because he is being treated for flu and has been advised to rest for this to clear, the Presidency said.

In his address, Ramaphosa said people of all races resisted apartheid. He cautioned against those who seek to drive a wedge between us, who seek to rekindle the embers of racial bitterness.

These efforts will fail, because even the inhumane system of apartheid failed to destroy what binds us together as human beings, he added.

The President cited several Afrikaners who fought against racial oppression, including Beyers Naude, Bram Fischer, Breyten Breytenbach, Athol Fugard and Ingrid Jonker.

We must say these things here today because we see the seeds of division being sown in our country and being exploited for political gain. We are seeing attempts being made to rewrite history, Ramaphosa said.

We are seeing efforts to cast one race in the position of the oppressed and the black majority, who were oppressed for centuries, in the role of oppressor.

Our apartheid wounds are being exploited to serve the agendas of others. We must be clear. We will not allow anyone else to define us, to tell us who and what we are, or to turn us against one another. We must roundly reject any attempts to divide us along racial lines. Not again. Never again.

In recent months, groups such as AfriForum and Solidarity have faced criticism for their international campaign that casts Afrikaners as victims of transformation policies.