The Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ms Thandi Moraka, will launch a Youth Fellowship Programme in partnership with the Universal Greening Organisation (UGO) on Tuesday, 8 September 2026.

DIRCO’s participation strengthens the UGO Fellowship programme, which creates an Africa-wide reciprocal exchange where youth from participating countries visit South Africa, and vice versa. The exchange will involve 11 African countries, including South Africa, and is designed to advance people-to-people diplomacy, youth connection across borders, and long-term regional cohesion.

The UGO Fellowship Programme is a Pan-African leadership and capacity-development initiative designed to identify, equip, and connect a new generation of African leaders committed to sustainable development, ethical leadership, and inclusive economic transformation. It turns youth from passive beneficiaries into active drivers of practical change by bridging learning and real-world impact, grounded in the principles of the green economy, social innovation, and youth empowerment. The programme builds a leadership pipeline that is ethically grounded, practically skilled, globally aware, and unmistakably Pan-African in outlook, to strengthen youth participation in enterprise, community development, and policy spaces.

Members of the media are invited as follows:

Date: Tuesday, 8 September 2026

Time: 09:00 (media to arrive at 08:00)

Venue: DIRCO, Training Room 8

Media RSVPs: Ms Kgopotso Rapakuana, rapakuanak@dirco.gov.za

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION

OR Tambo Building
460 Soutpansberg Road
Rietondale
Pretoria
0084