By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider
In an age where the country faces social turmoil an air of communal division has seemed to occur within the country of South Africa. But recently a movement has occurred to change this perspective, a sense of hope for the future of South Africa in which people can confront each other on a variety of opinions without it turning into conflict. This hope comes in the form of The Peace Summit. The Peace Summit hosted its second installment on Sunday at the budding upcoming establishment known as Grindhouse, on 4 Pritchard Street in Johannesburg CBD.
The Peace Summit is an open forum that aims to create a space where the people in attendance are able to host a conversation on a variety of social issues that South Africa faces everyday. South Africa has had a very brutal history of colonization in the form of apartheid which has left the indigenous population of South Africa largely marginalized, because of this the vast majority of South Africa have been plagued by enormous generational trauma which has been passed down from generation to generation.
Now, South Africa reaching its 31st year of independence and being a democratic state, there is an opportunity to heal this trauma that has been at the core of the country’s division. Each Peace Summit is guided by a different theme with every installment and these themes are spearheaded with a symposium which gives the forum a structure in which everyone in attendance gets to voice their opinions on that specific theme. The first installment of The Peace Summit which was held on the 29th of June was under the theme “The State of the Youth” which paid homage to the youth of the 1976 uprising who gave their lives for the freedom of South Africa. The second instalment which took place on the 27th of July was under the theme “The Plight of Patriarchy”. The second installment of The Peace Summit was graciously supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum.
Apart from hosting a symposium The Peace Summit also hosts live music with acts that amplify the theme being discussed. This also gives everyone in attendance an opportunity to also digest the information of the symposium with music which creates an atmosphere where those in attendance can hold conversations about the guided themes.
The Peace Summit will host its third installment in collaboration with an art based forum known as Biggies Corner which was founded by Johannesburg based Event Curator and project manager of the Austrian Cultural Forum Pretoria, Jana Findlay. Biggies Corner gives an artistic voice to bold and ambitious artists who do not always get the opportunity to have a safe platform to express their art or ideas.
This installment will be titled “The Feminine Front” which is also under the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum, in which the event will pay homage to the Woman’s March of 1956, and honor the bravery of those women where oppression in South Africa was at its peak. The Feminine Front will take place on the 9th of August 2025 on Women’s day, which will mark 69 years since the Woman’s March took place. The event will host a symposium that will be spearheaded by social change maker and community leader in Gender Based Violence (GBV) specialising in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), Natasha Diedericks. The symposium will then feature a conversation surrounding sexual education which will be led by visual artist Jessica Adams and then closing off with an educational conversation surrounding the menstrual cycle and menstrual equity led by Nqobile Mbatha.
The event will then end off with live musical acts which will consist of renowned upcoming artist Biko Maq, who also serves as the drummer for two emerging Johannesburg based bands, Lerato Orchestral Collective* where he also serves as a singer, and the eccentric punk band TwentyOne Children. Other musical acts include Lee-Soulae who is a budding soul singer and African Spiritual folk singer Ceduma Qamata.
The purpose of this initiative will hope to construct a budding South Africa for the next generation to own their voices.
