Ministers Speeches

Dit is vir my ’n besondere voorreg om vandag hier voor u te kan staan, en ek doen dit nie as ’n besoeker by ’n ander gemeenskap se viering nie, maar as iemand vir wie hierdie taal die heel eerste was waarmee hy die wêreld leer ken het.

Programme Director,

Members of the media,

Fellow South Africans,

Opening Remarks by the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Republic of South Africa

On the Occasion of the 10th African World Heritage Day and the 20th Anniversary of the African World Heritage Fund

Development Bank of Southern Africa, Midrand, Johannesburg | 5 May 2026

His Excellency, the Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa,

Good morning, and thank you for joining us here at Freedom Park – a site that holds our country's memory, and reminds us that sport, arts and culture are never separate from the long work of building a nation.

Your Excellency, I bring you the warmest greetings of President Cyril Ramaphosa, our Government of National Unity, and people of the Republic of South Africa.

Of all the birds taken from Great Zimbabwe in the colonial era, this one was taken first. It was the first to leave. And it is the last to come home.

Good afternoon. 

I want to begin with a name.

The object we are returning today has been referred to, for 137 years, as "the Zimbabwe soapstone bird". In the colonial record, it has an accession number. It has dimensions. It has a provenance note. It has been described, catalogued, photographed, and cited in academic papers. In Cecil Rhodes's study at Groote Schuur, it sat on a cabinet among other items taken from other places, reduced by its placement and by the logic of its collector to a trophy. 

Minister Of Sport, Arts And Culture – Mr Gayton Mckenzie 04 March 2026

Good afternoon members of the media, colleagues, and fellow South Africans.

Let me begin where millions of South Africans were this past weekend — watching one of the greatest spectacles in world football.

The Soweto Derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

TOESPRAAK: 50 JAAR VAN DIE AFRIKAANS TAALMUSEUM EN –MONUMENT

Let me start with an issue that has dominated headlines over the past few weeks – the so-called “yellow-card blunder” that threatened to derail Bafana Bafana’s World Cup qualification campaign.

Good morning to you all, and welcome to the warm shores of KwaZulu-Natal – a province where the heartbeat of Africa meets the open waters of the Indian Ocean. Here, history and hope walk side by side. The hills, the people, the rhythms – they remind us that culture lives and breathes all around us.