Special banknotes to honour Mandela

The Reserve Bank will launch a set of commemorative banknotes in honour of what would have been Nelson Mandela’s centenary year.

The announcement was made on Sunday — the day that the ANC launched its centennial celebrations of Mandela’s birth on July 18 1918.

It was also the same day 28 years ago that Mandela was released from Victor Verster prison after serving a sentence of 27 years.

The celebration took place on Cape Town’s Grand Parade and was addressed by ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa.

It was from the balcony of the Cape Town City Hall overlooking the Grand Parade that Mandela gave his historic speech a few hours after his release.

The Reserve Bank said all denominations of notes — R10, R20, R50, R100 and R200 — would be included in the commemorative series.

The South African Mint, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank, will also issue a new R5 circulation coin celebrating Mandela’s birth centenary.

The existing Mandela series of banknotes and the existing R5 coin in circulation would remain legal tender and would continue to be issued.

“This means that the new commemorative banknotes and coin will circulate alongside the existing banknotes and coin.

“It is expected that the commemorative banknotes and coin will be introduced into circulation from July 18,” the Reserve Bank said.

“Nelson Mandela represented the best version of ourselves as South Africans. We unveiled the current Mandela series of banknotes in 2012 to honour him,” Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago said.

“While preserving the value of money is our main mandate, our purpose is to be a bastion of institutional strength, contributing to a stable and prosperous economy that serves the wellbeing of all South Africans, and guided in part by Madiba’s values,” Kganyago said.