June is designated as Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to highlight the importance of men’s mental health and encourage open conversations about it.
While men’s physical health is often prioritised, their mental wellbeing can be overlooked, leading to mental conditions like depression, anxiety, addictive behaviours and sometimes suicide.
To commemorate this, Buffalo City Metro Reverend Thando Ngwekazi is breaking the silence around this subject, fighting the stigma and encouraging men to speak up. Through his foundation, “Ndibize Foundation”, he is hosting a men’s conference to raise awareness on men’s mental health in Zwelitsha’s OR Tambo Hall on the 26th July 2025.
Ngwekazi said this conference is about restoring and healing broken families and encouraging discouraged men. “We want to provide a safe space for frank and constructive discussions, and address the complicated challenges men face.
The attendees will also get to engage with the speakers as we will have time set aside for comments, questions and answers.” He said men have moved from their position of power and authority, making them hopeless and weak. “We want them to reclaim their role of leadership in their families and be good examples in society so as to produce more leaders and fathers with good characters.”
With a jam-packed line-up that promises a transformative experience, the conference will feature the Chairperson of the Public Participation, Petitions and Education Portfolio Committee, the Honourable Mlibo Qoboshiyane; Chief Mpumalanga Gwadiso, Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders; seasoned medical doctor and life coach Dr Mthembeni Tebelele; Dr Sivuyile Ngaphi from the South African Police Services (SAPS); and religious leaders: Reverend Lubabalo Quluba, District Secretary of the Methodist Church District of South Africa, and Reverend Mzwabantu Jibilili, who will give testimony, sharing his personal story of the anger and frustration he harboured because of never having met his own mother.
