Ramaphosa during the memorial service. (Photo: SA Government/X)
Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa said during the funeral service of Jesse Jackson, the American civil rights leader, in Chicago on Saturday that South Africans will never forget Jackson’s role in the global fight against injustice and apartheid.
Jackson died on February 17 at the age of 84.
Ramaphosa said in a tribute that South Africans consider Jackson “one of their own” because of his unwavering support for the country’s liberation struggle.
“The people of South Africa feel with you today as you lay a great man to rest and celebrate the remarkable life (of a man) who changed the moral direction of a nation and inspired the conscience of the world,” said Ramaphosa.
He said Jackson carried the message of hope across continents.
“We are here to say goodbye to a man who carried the message of hope from the streets of Chicago to the streets of Johannesburg.”
According to Ramaphosa, Jackson deliberately sided with South Africans during the “darkest years of apartheid”.
“In the long and painful years of our struggle, when the voices of our people were often silenced, Jesse Jackson sided with us by raising his voice against apartheid,” he said.
Ramaphosa added that Jackson was a brother in the fight for justice.
????Chicago, Illinois | President Cyril Ramaphosa attends the funeral service of Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Headquarters.#RIPJesseJackson #GovZAUpdates pic.twitter.com/H485O8RzcN
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) March 7, 2026
“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.”
Jackson visited South Africa as early as 1979 and attracted large crowds at meetings in Soweto.
He also supported worldwide pressure for sanctions against the apartheid government and was arrested in 1985 with his sons outside the South African embassy in the US during a protest.
Ramaphosa said Jackson’s life gave hope to oppressed people around the world.
“On behalf of 62 million freedom-loving South Africans, we say thank you. Get well. Rest in eternal peace.”