Kingston, 14 May 2021 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has announced that Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, and the President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa, will address jointly an international webinar to mark Africa Day on May 25.

Minister Grange said:
“The webinar is being presented by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, through the National Council on Reparation, and the South African High Commission in Jamaica as part of the ‘Conversation with Africa’ series.

The theme of the webinar for Africa Day is ‘A Conversation with Africa: A Destiny of Peace, Prosperity, Strength and Unity.’”

Prime Minister Holness, in his letter of invitation to the South African President stated, “Jamaica has enjoyed a special relationship with the Republic of South Africa and shares a tradition of pursing racial equality. The work continues and, in this phase, we remain focused on forging even stronger strategic, economic, cultural and political cooperation between our countries.”

Prime Minister Holness and President Ramaphosa will be joined by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith and by South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, the Honourable Dr Grace Naledi Pandor.

Minister Grange and the South African High Commissioner to Jamaica, Her Excellency Lumka Yengeni, will co-host the event.

The webinar begins at 10:00 a.m. (Jamaica time)/5:00 p.m. (South African Standard Time) and will be broadcast live on the PBCJ cable and YouTube

platforms; as well as on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and other broadcast and social media platforms.

In highlighting the importance of the Africa Day webinar, Minister Grange said: “Africa Day celebrations across the world are intended to commemorate and acknowledge African solidarity, unity in diversity, creativity, challenges and successes. It is a chance to reflect on the progress that we have made through cooperation in anti-Apartheid and liberation struggles and an opportunity to craft meaningful agendas, in unity, towards finding solutions to the challenges we face as one people.”

The Africa Day webinar will be a two part event on May 25. More details will be announced at a later date.

END