{"id":234607,"date":"2026-05-14T16:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/234607\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T16:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:10:17","slug":"springboks-rassie-erasmus-to-receive-south-africas-highest-national-honour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/234607\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboks: Rassie Erasmus to receive South Africa’s highest national honour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbarians\"Barbarians<\/a><\/p>\n

Rassie Erasmus will be awarded South Africa\u2019s highest national honour, the Order of Ikhamanga, for his role in the Springboks\u2019 recent Rugby World Cup successes and his contribution to national unity in the country.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, will officially bestow the award on Erasmus during an investiture ceremony on Tuesday, May 19.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s Chancellor of the National Orders, Phindile Baleni, who is also the South African Presidency\u2019s director general, made the announcement on Thursday.<\/p>\n

One of 40 recipients<\/p>\n

Baleni revealed that the Springboks<\/a>\u00a0head coach will be among 40 South Africans and foreign nationals who will receive National Orders next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cNational Orders are the highest awards that our country, through the President, bestows on our citizens and eminent foreign nationals who have contributed towards the advancement of democracy and who have made a significant impact on improving the lives of South Africans,\u201d said Baleni.<\/p>\n

The Order of Ikhamanga is awarded to South African citizens who have excelled in the fields of arts, culture, literature, music, journalism and sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis [Erasmus] inspirational leadership in national and international rugby has propelled the Springboks to repeated Rugby World Cup Championships,\u201d added Baleni.<\/p>\n

Springboks prop set to miss the Rugby World Cup after doping suspension handed down<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cVictory on the field of play has advanced social cohesion among South Africans and raised the nation\u2019s esteem in the international community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

National Orders recognise the contributions made by individuals towards building a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa as envisaged in the country\u2019s Constitution.<\/p>\n

Siya Kolisi received the same award three years ago<\/p>\n

In 2023, Springboks skipper Siya Kolisi was also awarded the National Order of Ikhamanga in the build-up to that year\u2019s Rugby World Cup in France which the Boks won after beating arch-rivals the All Blacks in the final.<\/p>\n

The Order of Ikhamanga is Erasmus<\/a>\u2018 latest award after he guided South Africa to back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles in 2019 and 2023 in Japan and France respectively.<\/p>\n

In 2024, his achievements with the South African national team was also recognised when he was awarded an honorary doctorate from North-West University in Potchefstroom.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \u2018You see stars after scrummaging against Ox Nche\u2019 \u2013 Springboks powerhouse claims South Africa training more difficult that Tests<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus will be awarded South Africa\u2019s highest national honour, the Order of Ikhamanga, for his role in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[38050,57452,96,96238,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-234607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-home-page","9":"tag-internationals","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-rassie-erasmus","12":"tag-south-africa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116573807584086238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}