SA Will Never Forget Role Jesse Jackson Played: Ramaphosa – SABC News – Xavier Radio Ug

President Cyril Ramaphosa has told mourners at the funeral service of civil rights leader in the US, Reverend Jesse Jackson, in Chicago, that South Africans will never forget the role Jackson played on the global stage.
Ramaphosa has paid tribute to the late civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson, at a private funeral service in Chicago Illinois, in the US.
“In the long and painful years of our struggle, when the voices of our people were often silenced, Jesse Jackson chose to belong to us by raising his voice against apartheid on our behalf. When our cause was ignored, and many would look away he stood firm in solidarity with us,” says Ramaphosa.
“He looked at a people he had never met and said: their pain is my pain. Their chains are my chains. Their struggle for freedom is my struggle. And for this, the people of South Africa remember him not as a distant friend, but as a brother in the struggle for justice and freedom,” he adds.

LIVE NOW | Mourners have started arriving in Chicago for the funeral of US civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson. President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver a tribute at the Homegoing Service. pic.twitter.com/zPGD7v8jct
— SABC News (@SABCNews) March 7, 2026
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Jackson passed away following an illness, and his funeral service follows several memorial services.
While given just two minutes to speak, Ramaphosa said that the story of Jackson and South African can never be told in a short time. He says Jackson had an impact from the streets of Chicago to the streets of Soweto.
He described Jackson as a proud African, likening him to the likes of Pixley ka Isaka Seme.
“He epitomised the image that was depicted by one of the key founders of the African National Congress, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, who delivered a most famous speech in 1906 when he was a student at Columbia University,” says Ramaphosa.
“He said: ‘I am an African, and I set my pride in my race over against a hostile public opinion… The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved.’ That speech captured the spirit of African pride and hope. This is what Jesse Jackson meant to South Africa and Africa. Hence we stand here today and say he also belongs to us.”
He says at the height of aparthied in South Africa, Jackson was one of the people that stood with the people of South Africa.
“Jesse Jackson stood with the people of South Africa during our darkest hour. He told the world that the struggle for dignity in the United States of America was inseparable from the fight against apartheid and injustice in South Africa,” says Ramaphosa.

WATCH | President Cyril Ramaphosa is in Chicago for the funeral of US civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson later today. SABC News correspondent Sherwin Bryce-Pease has the latest updates. pic.twitter.com/gNj5EiFxZd
— SABC News (@SABCNews) March 7, 2026

RELATED VIDEO: Remembering Jesse Jackson’s civil rights legacy
Jackson’s final resting place is in a prominent cemetery known for hosting significant historical figures. Jackson passed away on February 17th.
His son Congressman Jonathan Jackson, paid tribute to his father.
“You can say whatever you want about my father, the Reverend Jesse Jackson. But one thing you have to admit, he shook up this country, and shook up this world. Jesse Jackson, he made sure that American corporations were able to share some of the benefits with those that had been locked out and excluded, those that had experienced American segregation, American apartheid, that had been excluded from reciprocal trade agreements. Jesse Jackson was not a politician, he was a public servant,” he says.
 

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