The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Supra Mahumapelo, has noted with sadness the passing of the former High Commissioner to the Republic of Kenya, Mr Mninwa Johannes MJ Mahlangu.
According to the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Mahlangu passed away on Sunday, 24 August 2025 on his way to a South African hospital after a short illness. He served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Somalia and as Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON). His distinguished career also included serving as South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States of America.
Mr Mahlangu was part of the group that drafted South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitution and was elected to the first democratic Parliament in 1994. He went on to serve as Deputy Chairperson and later as Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces.
Mr Mahumapelo extended the committee’s condolences to Ambassador Mahlangu’s family, friends and colleagues who worked alongside him. The committee acknowledges the loss felt by all who knew him.
“May his soul rest in peace.”
Africa Fact: On bling culture, one seventeenth century visitor to southern African empire of Monomotapa, that ruled over this vast region, wrote that: “The people dress in various ways: at court of the Kings their grandees wear cloths of rich silk, damask, satin, gold and silk cloth; these are three widths of satin, each width four covados [2.64m], each sewn to the next, sometimes with gold lace in between, trimmed on two sides, like a carpet, with a gold and silk fringe, sewn in place with a two fingers’ wide ribbon, woven with gold roses on silk.”
Africa Fact: Southern Africans mined gold on an epic scale. One modern writer tells us that: “The estimated amount of gold ore mined from the entire region by the ancients was staggering, exceeding 43 million tons. The ore yielded nearly 700 tons of pure gold which today would be valued at over $7.5 billion.”
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Fun South African Fact: South African Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant on 3 December 1967 at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. The groundbreaking surgery was carried out on Louis Washkansky and Dr. Barnard was assisted by a large and exceptional team of surgeons, nurses and technicians. One of Dr. Barnard’s assistants was Hamilton Naki, a black laboratory assistant who had worked previously as a gardener and went on to work in the animal laboratory at the University of Cape Town. He had assisted Dr Barnard with research leading to the transplant. In the apartheid days, Naki had no access to higher education due to his race. Despite being unable to access formal training, he learned from and assisted university researchers and went on to do amazing work.