PREMIER MP NDLOVU’s WELCOMING ADDRESS AT NOKUTHULA SIMELANE’S MEMORIAL LECTURE: MPUMALANGA UNIVERSITY 03 SEPTEMBER 2026
Programme Director Ms Sakina Kamwendo
Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of South Africa, Honourable President CR.
Minister of Human Settlements Honourable Thembi Simelane
Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Honourable Gayton Mackenzie
All Ministers and Deputy Ministers present
Provincial ANC Secretary, cde Muzi Chirwa
Secretary General of the ANCWL, cde Nokuthula Nqaba
Honourable Members of Parliament of South Africa
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mpumalanga Professor Thenjiwe Meyiwa
Chairperson of the University of Mpumalanga Council, Mr Sabelo Mahlalela and the entire UMP council, Academic staff , Student Representative Council and all students
Mpumalanga Executive Council Members and all Honourable members of the Mpumalanga Legislature.
The Director General of Mpumalanga Government, Ms Maggie Skosana
The National, Provincial, and Local Government Senior Management.
The mother and the entire family of Cde Nokuthula Simelane
Commanders and all Members of Umkhonto We Sizwe
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good afternoon,
It is a great honour and privilege to welcome you to the province of the rising sun, a province that works for all, for this prestigious occasion: the inaugural Nokuthula Simelane Memorial Lecture.
Today, we are gathered under the very important theme: "Restoring Dignity, Chasing Justice: Honouring the Legacies of Our Unsung Heroes and Heroines."
We are truly privileged as Mpumalanga to be hosting this historic memorial lecture in honour of one of our own, a daughter of the soil, whose voice was brutally silenced. The most powerful thing we can do is to speak for her and others who cannot speak for themselves.
A struggle heroine, a liberation fighter, who was not afraid to face the brutal apartheid regime and stand for her people, together with her people in fighting for the freedom we all enjoy today.
Cde Nokuthula Simelane represents a special generation that was given two choices by the apartheid government, submit and abandon the struggle for freedom, or continue the struggle and face the consequences, not only for themselves, but also for their families.
We are here today because cde Nokuthula’s generation did not forsake the struggle, indeed many of them paid the ultimate price.
Even when she was alone with the interrogators, subjected to torture and other forms of ill treatment, she didn’t not yield any information that could compromise her unit.
That’s why as the Mpumalanga province, we owe cde Nokuthula not only our remembrance, but our deepest honour and respect. We salute her.
As a result we are building a state of the art high school in Bethal, her home town, to be named after her. The school will stand as a living monument to her courage, sacrifice and unwavering commitment to the liberation of our people.
In five months’ time, construction of the Nokuthula Simelane High School will commence. Long after our demise, this school will remain a living reminder to our children and future generations that their freedom was not free but built on the sacrifices of cde Nokuthula and other freedom fighters.
When we were approached by the Nokuthula Simelane Foundation as both government and the ANC, we were delighted by the initiative and fully embraced the opportunity to support and honour the life, sacrifice and legacy of Cde Nokuthula.
Let this lecture invoke the conscience of the conscienceless of those who are deliberately keeping the truth about the whereabout of cde Nokuthula to come forward with information. Please relieve the family and the country from this secondary victimisation.
Your organisation honourable President has given accurate information to the TRC, affording the country the opportunity to heal and find closure.
We therefore urge all those who are still holding back the truth about our comrades’ disappearance to please afford families the much desired closure.
Some of them are now claiming to be Christians and pastors yet they have not confessed their sins in order to repent.
They are misrepresenting Christianity, I know not which gospel they are reading and preaching, because the message of the Gospel is one of truth, compassion, justice and love.
We thank the Simelane family and families of all our comrades for giving us selfless, fearless, tireless and courageous, children who fought for our total liberation.
Today we walk tall as a liberated nation because of their sacrifices.
SIYA YIBONGA IMISEBENZI YABO!
Siyabonga.