MICHEÁL MARTIN IS to visit the home of the late Nelson Mandela as his trip to the G20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa winds down.

The Taoiseach is also paying tribute to civil rights efforts from the country’s apartheid era, including attending the memorial of one young activist who was shot and killed by police aged just 12.

Hector Pieterson was a schoolboy in Soweto who was one of many black students protesting against the enforced teaching of classroom lessons in Afrikaans, a language promoted by the white-controlled state during the apartheid regime.

It resulted in major resistance by pupils in June 1976, and a devasting response from police.

Up to 176 youngsters were killed during the massacre.

Martin toured a museum to Pieterson before laying a wreathe at a memorial to the schoolboy.

Taoiseach @MichealMartinTD has laid a wreathe at a memorial for schoolboy Hector Pieterson in Soweto.

Pieterson was just 12 when he was killed by authorities during protests against the enforced teaching of lessons in Afrikaans in 1976.@thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/mv4oo7Ubww

— Eoghan Dalton (@EoghanDalton) November 23, 2025

He will also pay tribute to Mandela, the legendary civil rights leader who was South Africa’s first president when it became a democracy.

The Taoiseach laid a wreathe at the memorial to the schoolboy today. Government of Ireland Government of Ireland

Martin had been attending the G20 summit earlier in Johannesburg where Ireland had been invited by hosts South Africa for the first time.

Over the course of recent days, South African leaders and the Taoiseach have paid tribute to each other, recognising the connection as stretching back to the struggle to end the apartheid regime.

At a reception in Johannesburg for the local Irish community on Friday night, Martin said that the two countries had forged “eternal” bonds with each other.

Micheál Martin at the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto Government of Ireland Government of Ireland

The Taoiseach is travelling on towards Angola where there will be a joint summit tomorrow of the EU and the African Union bloc of nations.