Every year on 24 September, South Africans pause to celebrate Heritage Day, a moment to reflect on the diverse cultural traditions, stories, and legacies that shape who we are. It is a day of pride (of braais, music, dress, and storytelling), but it is also a call to think about what heritage we are leaving behind for generations yet to come.

In 2025, as the world faces escalating climate disasters, from floods in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and other provinces, to heatwaves across the continent, Heritage Day takes on new meaning. Our heritage is not only cultural but ecological: the land, rivers, oceans, forests, and wildlife that sustain us. Protecting this shared inheritance is central to the struggle for climate justice.

The Heritage of Struggle and Justice:

South Africa’s heritage is deeply rooted in the fight for justice. From the anti-apartheid struggle to the ongoing battles for social and economic equality, the story of this country is one of resilience against systems of oppression. Climate injustice today is an extension of this struggle: 

• Poor and rural communities, often Black and marginalised, face the harshest effects of droughts, rising food prices, and energy poverty, and 

• Young people, women, and workers are inheriting not only a democracy but also a planet in crisis. 

To celebrate heritage without confronting climate injustice would be to ignore one of the greatest threats to our future.

Climate Justice as Living Heritage:

When we speak of “living heritage,” we must also speak of the land that feeds us and the air we breathe. South Africa’s Constitution guarantees the right to an environment that is not harmful to health and well-being. Yet coal mines poison Mpumalanga’s skies, oil and gas exploration threatens coastal livelihoods, and “false solutions” like nuclear or mega-hydrogen projects sideline the very communities they claim to serve. 

True climate justice means:

• Decentralised renewable energy owned by communities, 

• Just energy transitions that protect workers and ensure no one is left behind, and 

• Gender and youth leadership, recognising that those most impacted must shape the solutions.

This is how we turn cultural pride into ecological responsibility.

A Heritage of Ubuntu: 

Heritage Day reminds us of Ubuntu: “I am because we are.” Climate justice is Ubuntu in action. It is recognising that the struggles of fisherfolk in the Eastern Cape, farmers in Limpopo, and youth activists in Johannesburg are interconnected with global fights against fossil fuels and extractivism. If we destroy our ecological inheritance, we betray Ubuntu and deny future generations their right to life, culture, and dignity.

Passing on a Just Legacy: 

On this Heritage Day 2025, let us ask ourselves: What heritage will our children inherit?

• Will they inherit coal ash and empty promises, or clean air and affordable solar power?

• Will they inherit polluted rivers, or thriving ecosystems?

• Will they inherit exclusion, or a just transition that includes their voices?

The choices we make now, in policy, in activism, in community organising, will shape whether Heritage Day in a few years to come is a celebration of survival or a lament for what was lost.

Heritage as Responsibility: 

Heritage is not just about remembering where we come from, but about shaping where we are going. In 2025, climate justice must be central to our heritage narrative. To honour those who came before us, we must act boldly today so that those who come after us inherit not only songs and stories, but also a livable planet.

Heritage Day is climate justice. Protecting people, protecting culture, protecting the Earth.