Every year on 18 July, we’re called to honour Nelson Mandela by giving 67 minutes of service. We’re told to do something kind: hand out food, donate clothes, paint classrooms, or read to children. It’s a beautiful gesture, no doubt. Across Cape Town, I saw schools, churches, NGOs, and corporates showing up, smiling, giving, hoping to make a difference.
But if I’m honest, it often feels like a performance.
Because the very next day, everything goes back to normal.
The hungry are still hungry.
The shelter is still overcrowded.
The crèche with a new coat of paint still doesn’t have enough teachers.
And most of us? We pat ourselves on the back and move on, until next year.
This isn’t how we honour Mandela.
We forget too easily that Madiba gave 67 years of his life in service. He sat in prison for 27 of them. He lost time with his children. He endured pain and injustice, and still emerged with a vision rooted in peace, dignity, and inclusion. Surely, we can do more than one hour a year?
I’m not dismissing Mandela Day. I’ve participated in it myself. But I’m tired of the selfies. I’m tired of the neatly packaged kindness that disappears once the cameras are off. I’m tired of the sugar-coated idea that 67 minutes can somehow fix a country as deeply unequal as ours.
Ubuntu; that powerful African philosophy that says “I am because you are” is not charity. It’s not giving leftovers or clearing your closet. It’s not about painting over poverty for one day a year. Ubuntu is a daily practice. It’s about recognising each other’s full humanity and building a society where no one is left behind.
We’re failing that standard.
Let’s not pretend otherwise. Most South Africans are struggling some living in leaking shacks, others working for minimum wage, raising children alone, or trying to rebuild after addiction, violence, or loss. Injustice has become part of our daily landscape, and that’s not what Mandela fought for.
If we really want to honour him, we need to ask uncomfortable questions:
Why do people still queue for water in 2025?
Why are libraries closing when children need places to read and dream?
Why do clinics run out of essential meds?
Why is GBV still rampant in a country with a Constitution that promises protection?
The answers aren’t easy. But looking away is worse.
We have to make dignity part of our daily lives not just an annual event. That means seeing the people we pass on the street. It means greeting the cleaner with the same warmth we give the boss. It means calling out corruption, even when it’s inconvenient. It means doing better every day, not just on Mandela Day.
Mandela’s legacy isn’t about branding. It’s about bravery. It’s about building something better even when no one’s watching.
So yes, keep the 67 minutes. But let’s not stop there.
Let’s live like Madiba asked us to: with courage, compassion, and consistency.
Not with moments but with movement. Not with charity but with change.
