On 30 years of democracy
This is the day we had sacrificed so much for when we surreptitiously slipped away from our homes and our country for foreign lands in pursuit of freedom and justice. Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia have been
here before. Now is our turn. Freedom
songs sung with zest are still ringing in
our ears. Painful, flashing images of lowering
coffins into the bowels of the earth are
still vivid in that inward eye. Not too long
ago coffins carrying the mortal remains of
comrades fallen in battle shouting “Freedom
or death!” were a common sight.
At the age of 36, I am going to cast
my vote for the very first time today,
27 April 1994. I have butterflies in my stomach.
I am anxious. This is a vote that will
salvage my human dignity that has hitherto
been ravaged by the inhumane apartheid
system declared by the whole world
to be a crime against humanity.
A dignity that was never lost
but was severely violated by our oppressors
will be reclaimed today. The vote I am
going to cast is to ensure that South Africa
becomes a constitutional democracy that
values the supremacy of the Constitution and
the rule of law. My vote is going to be for
section 10 of the Interim Constitution of 1993,
a vote to affirm that “everyone has inherent
dignity and the right to have their
dignity respected and protected”.
Two years from now the interim
Constitution of 1993, which brought us
to these inaugural free and democratic
elections, which, for the first time, made all of
us equal before the law and gave us the right
to equal protection and benefit of the law,
as outlined in its section 8, will give birth
to a new Constitution which will be adopted
on 8 May 1996 and go on to be amended
more than 16 times.
Thirty years after this historic moment, South Africa will stand as a constitutional democracy. I will never come
to regret today, waiting in the sun in a long,
snaking queue to cast my vote.
South Africa, what we could never
have anticipated or thought of today, though,
is that a time will come when some
of those who fought on the side of the progressive forces of liberation will become
turncoats; that some of the very people who
fought for this moment will be the same ones
to piss on our Constitution and the
values enshrined in it. How will one-time
heroes become villains?
After the euphoria of this moment,
corruption in both the public and private
sectors will become an existential threat
to a burgeoning economy and democracy.
Will this not be a betrayal of the struggle
for national liberation and an insult
to those who laid down their lives so we
may know freedom and democracy? It will
be.
What will always give me eternal hope
in the years to come is the resilience
of some of our institutions, including the
judiciary, civil society and the media. A
return to good governance will always feel
within our grasp thanks to a transformative Constitution, a tool for an active citizenry. South Africa, throughout all that
is to come and what we will have to
face, it is my right to vote that will continue
to serve as my fundamental power as a
citizen to keep fighting for the realisation
of the South African dream.
Many South Africans died for the
right to vote, and I will honour them
by voting today. I will honour them by making
good on this opportunity to make South
Africa the country we all want to live in.
South Africa, as you journey
forth, please keep these words by the Roman
philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero close: A nation can survive its fools
and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive
treason from within. An enemy at the
gate is less formidable. For he is known
and carries his banner openly. But the
traitor moves among those within the gate
freely, his sly whispers rustling through
all the alleys, heard in the very halls
of government itself. For the traitor
appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents
familiar to his victims and wears
their face and arguments, he appeals to
the baseness that lies deep in the hearts
of all men. He rots the soul of a nation,
he works secretly and unknown in
the night to undermine the pillars of the
city, he
infects the body politic so that
it can no longer resist. A murderer is less
to fear. The traitor is the plague.
PS: To the undecideds, do not pack
for Perth. South Africa is a country
of endless opportunities.
1994: Lawyer in the ANC’S legal
and constitutional affairs department 2024: Special adviser to the minister
of water and sanitation