Reflections on freedom
SOUTH Africans celebrated Freedom Day yesterday 23 years after the country first went to the polls as one irrespective of creed, colour or class – to exercise their right to elect a government of their choice.
It’s not a big anniversary as far as anniversaries go. It’s not a silver or gold, a diamond or a ruby, but it is proving to be one of the most special Freedom Days we have commemorated.
Sometimes the debates might hurt, but there are few countries that contest certain subjects as robustly as we do. We have few sacred cows; we have become brutally honest and open about race and the legacies – not just of statutory apartheid but the structural aftermath which underpins so much of what we do today.
Our constitutional institutions have proved their worth over and over again; we have enjoyed the tenure of one of our most indefatigablepublic protectors yet and seen how our Constitutional Court almost daily breathes life into and nurtures the eponymous document that is its seed, forging a path for other more junior courts to be as steadfast.
The most vocal of all though have been the heirs of this change: the citizens, you, most of all.
THE Class of 2015 shook the pillars of academia with their #FeesMustFall campaign, providing muscle and sinew to the Freedom Charter that forebears had put their names to on the dusty streets of Kliptown 60 years before.
They believed what was imprinted on the Freedom Charter all those years ago: “Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit”, has not been realised, particularly for the missing middle – those considered too rich to qualify for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, but too poor for bank loans.
But it is the South Africans of 2017 who have stood as one and made their voices heard, coming together in recent weeks, irrespective – or in spite of – race, class or creed to express and exercise their citizenship against a backdrop of others ironically trying to use the race card against them.
They are fighting for a corrupt-free country, for their freedom to express their frustration with leaders they believe are robbing them of the right to have an economically stable country.