We want real freedom

More than 19.7 million South Africans cast their votes in the country’s first democratic elections, 23 years ago. As expected, the ANC easily won the poll, with 62.65% of the vote.

Shortly afterwards when Nelson Mandela was sworn in as democratic South Africa’s first president, a wave of optimism swept across the country, especially among the poor.

For the first time since black communities were dispossessed of their land, for the first time since they were betrayed in the negotiations that led to the formation of the Union of South Africa, in which they played no part, the hopes of the previously voteless began to rise.

For many South Africans it had been a long journey, full of tragedy and tears – of massacres such as Sharpeville, of being driven out of their homes in terms of legislation such as the Group Areas Act, the pass laws and detention without trial.

The new government, they believed, would begin a process that would see them prosper again. The poll of April 27, 1994 was declared a public holiday. Every year, it gives us an opportunity to measure how far we have come as a people together, as a country.

Today, 23 years later, we must ask ourselves: How far have we really come?

Sadly, the optimism of 1994 has waned, and has been replaced by pessimism and near hopelessness especially among the poor.

And yet, the ANC has done much for the poor. It has spent billions on free housing and modern schools. It has provided many communities with running water and electricity.

But the ranks of the poor are continuing to grow.

Our people want jobs. They want houses near to their places of work.

They want to live in communities where they can feel safe.

If the governing ANC were to look deeply into itself, it would admit that there is much more it can do for those who have faithfully voted for it in elections since 1994.

Our call to the ANC government is this: Free yourself from corruption so that those who have been waiting for promises to be kept, may celebrate real freedom.