Poland in South Africa

In connection with the new polish act on passport documents and the launch of the Passport Document Register, from November 8 (from 14:00) until November 13, 2022, passport authorities will not be accepting passport applications.

On October 14, we celebrate the "National Education Day" in Poland, the holiday of all education workers both in the country and abroad.

The European Film Festival in South Africa goes hybrid for its 9th edition between 13 and 23 October 2022.

Ambassador Andrzej Kanthak met on Monday, 3 October 2022 with Ms Bathandwa Kwababa, founder of the South African NGO “The African Show - Coalition Institute” (TASCI), and a group of South African youth and their teacher, Ms Frida Hanyane, from a school in Olivenhoutbosch, a poor district of Pretoria.

On October 3, 2022, the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Kanthak received Dr. habil. Piotr Luliński, Deputy Dean of the Pharmaceutical Faculty of the Medical University of Warsaw, who visited South Africa in connection with the implementation of a research project financed by the National Research Foundation - a South African agency established to support scientific activities.

The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Pretoria organized a conference on September 28, 2022 entitled: "How Russia’s War Will End - Lessons in Why Nations Succeed" with the participation of Dr. Greg Mills, director of the Brenthurst Foundation and a prominent South African analyst and publicist. The Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Pretoria, Andrzej Kanthak, gave an introductory speech and opened the conference.

On Sunday, September 25, 2022, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Pretoria, in cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine in Pretoria, once again presented the exhibition "Mom, I don't want war". The exhibition was on display at the headquarters of the Greek Community in Pretoria as part of the celebrations commemorating the anniversary of Ukraine regaining independence.

A conference entitled "Enhancing Poland and South Africa’s cooperation for a sustainable future" was held in Johannesburg on September 22, 2022. The event was organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Pretoria in cooperation with the South African NGO think tank - South African Institute of International Relations (SAIIA), the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) and the Witwatersrand University.

The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, in cooperation with the Embassies of Israel, Poland and Ukraine, organized an extremely interesting and important conference on the traumatic and destructive impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine on the human psyche. An international group of psychologists and social policy experts discussed the impact of the war on Ukrainian civilians and refugees in terms of psychological adaptation, as well as clinical and social initiatives to heal and build resilience among war victims.

The outbreak of the Second World War, which began on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by the Nazi Third Reich, is one of the events annually commemorated throughout Europe. However, 17 September 1939, the date of the Soviet Union’s aggression against Poland, is not as widely known in the West. Therefore I believe this event needs to be remembered as it not only decided the fate of my Homeland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, but it did so for the whole of the next half-century. If today we, Poles, and other peoples of our region, repeat that we know Russia and understand its imperial ambitions better than the West, we do so because of our historical experience symbolized by 17 September.