What would Madiba do? As Mandela Month unfolds this July, South Africans are answering that question in kitchens, classrooms and community halls across the country – and government programmes are giving young people practical ways to turn ubuntu into opportunity.
Writing for the South African Government News Agency, Neo Semono reflects that 18 July marked what would have been President Nelson Mandela’s 108th birthday, and that the day – and the month around it – are, at their core, about caring for one another.
The spirit of the borrowed cup of sugar
Many South Africans, Semono writes, were raised on borrowed cups of sugar and flour from neighbours, taken in after school when parents were still at work, in an overall culture of sharing what little there was. Mandela Month is a call to keep that inheritance alive.
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead,” Madiba said in May 2002.
The famous 67 minutes of service – one for each year Mandela devoted to the quest for justice and freedom – can take many forms: painting an orphanage, cooking for the elderly, buying groceries for a child-headed household, or simply sharing a meal with someone who seldom gets visitors. And it need not be a once-off affair; 67 minutes can spark a lifelong friendship or teach a skill that gets passed on.
Opportunity as an act of nation-building
The caring extends beyond individual good deeds. A series of government initiatives is connecting young South Africans to real earning opportunities:
- The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention secured 155 161 new opportunities during the fourth quarter of the 2025/26 financial year;
- The SA Youth.mobi recruitment platform now has more than 5.7 million young people registered, connecting job seekers with potential employers;
- The Department of Employment and Labour’s May 2026 Budget Vote announced a R350 million government and business partnership aimed at placing 130 000 young people into learning and employment opportunities;
- The National Youth Development Agency’s grant programme offers young entrepreneurs both financial and non-financial business development support;
- The Expanded Public Works Programme deliberately uses public expenditure on goods and services to create work opportunities.
Government also continues to provide social grants and free basic services for the most vulnerable, an expression of the same principle of care.
A call to action for every South African
Cabinet has called on South Africans to dedicate their time and efforts during Mandela Month to help build a South Africa that works for all. Nelson Mandela Day and Month, Semono writes, are a call to reflect on Tata Madiba’s values of nation-building, social cohesion and reconciliation, and to use them to contribute meaningfully to society.
The guiding principle is ubuntu – I am because you are. “A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of,” Mandela once said. Time spent in the service of others, this Mandela Month reminds us, is never wasted.
The full reflection was published by SAnews.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
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