(VOVworld) – South African people marked the 20^th anniversary of their national reconciliation day on Tuesday, December 16^th, using a theme of social cohesion, reconciliation, and national unity.

South Africans celebrates the 20th anniversary of National Reconciliation Day which initiated by late President Nelson Mandela. (Photo: AFP)

In a speech at the government celebration at Ncome Museum, KwaZulu-Natal Province, President Jacob Zuma reviewed South Africa’s major achievements of the past 20 years that have helped the country develop in peace, freedom, equality, and unification. On this occasion, President Zuma attended the inauguration of a bridge connecting Ncome Museum and the Blood River Monument, a symbol of reconciliation between Afrikaners and Zulus and among South African people in general. He hailed the bridge as a place for both sides to mark the anniversary together instead of holing separate ceremonies on each side of the river.
On December 16, 1961, the African National Congress Party formed its military wing—the Umkhonto we Sizzwe (MK)—to fight the Apartheid regime. The cause of national reconciliation was initiated by late South African President Nelson Mandela, following South Africa’s 1^st general election in 1994 in which black South Africans for the first time had the right to vote.