Free yourself from corruption

ON APRIL 27, 1994, more than 19.7 million South Africans cast their votes in the country’s first democratic elections. As expected, the ANC easily won the poll, with 62.65% of the vote, with the National Party – on 20.39% – finishing a distant second.

When Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president of our new country shortly afterwards, a wave of optimism swept across the country, especially among the poorest of 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, of Pass Laws… of detention without trial.

The new government, they believed, would begin a process that would see them gain what should always have been their right – in a new South Africa.

The poll of April 27 was celebrated as a new public holiday – Freedom Day.

Every year it gives us an opportunity to measure how far we have come as people, as communities – and as a country.

Today, 23 years later, let us ask ourselves: how far have we really come?

Sad to say, the optimism of 1994 has waned, and has been replaced by pessimism – especially by the poor.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 communities throughout the country with running water and taps.

But this has not proved enough. 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 over the decades.

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