On Saturday, 25th October 2025, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, in partnership with the United Nations (UN), was proud to host the 23rd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at the Sandton Convention Centre. A full house of three and a half thousand people was in attendance to hear Ms. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, speak to the theme of Enhancing Peace and Global Cooperation.

When our founder Nelson Mandela inaugurated the Annual Lecture in 2003, he intended it to be a platform for thought leadership and for the provoking of difficult conversations. Ms. Albanese, who received a standing ovation when she walked onto the stage, provided both. Her acknowledgement of the extent to which South Africa’s struggle against apartheid and Mandela’s long walk to freedom continue to inspire her flowed into a multi-layered analysis of the historical and structural contexts of the genocide in Gaza and the continuing occupation of the West Bank. She invited the audience to consider the connections between the ongoing Palestinian struggle for liberation and the centuries of resistance around the world to colonial and neocolonial
world orders.

She highlighted the extent to which Israel is connected to a global apparatus of power that sustains it and has a vested interest in the hegemony Israel aims to exercise in the region. Her analysis foregrounded the roles being played by banks, multinational corporations, arms dealers, and governments. Understanding the underlying apparatus of power and its interests, she argued, is
critical to making sense of conflicts around the world, from Palestine to Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This understanding is critical also to making sense of the rapidly evolving forms and manifestations of oppression evident in the world.

For her, justice is indivisible, and solidarity in struggles for justice is the political expression of love. “I do have hope,” she said. Reflecting on the concept and the practice of sumud and exploring how it is related to South Africa’s ubuntu, she ended with a passionate plea for belief in liberatory futures and resilience in confronting humanity’s many challenges in this moment. Ms. Albanese’s Lecture was followed by a conversation between her and Dr. Naledi Pandor, Chair of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, facilitated by Redi Tlhabi. This created a dialogical space for teasing out some of the themes and lines of inquiry raised in the lecture. It is regrettable that the media engagement following the event, and the further probing of key issues we had anticipated, was disrupted by an attempt by the Christian Friends of Israeli Communities and Christians for Israel USA to serve court papers on Ms. Albanese for alleged defamation. We welcome the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s acknowledgement that the service of this process was irregular, and its consequent apology to Ms.Albanese, the United Nations, and the Foundation