Not a happy Freedom Day for many South Africans
AN honest and sombre conversation at where South Africa stands, 27 years after the dawn of democracy, was held virtually yesterday.
Facilitated by Iziko Museums of SA (Iziko), the virtual public dialogue included Lebohang Liepollo Pheko, Dr Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh and Nkosikhulule Xhawulengweni Nyembezi.
Iziko operates 11 national museums, the Planetarium and Digital Dome, the Social History Centre and three collection-specific libraries in Cape Town.
Participants provided a painstaking analysis on the meaning of Freedom Day in the time of Covid-19 and democratic South Africa.
Iziko Museums chief executive Rooksana Omar said, “The existent inequalities in SA, were highlighted and heightened by Covid-19.
“Those living on the margins of society were pushed to the very brink. The right to human dignity, the rights of association, are not accessible to everyone as they should be.”
Pheko said: “I find it very difficult to say Happy Freedom Day but it’s an important moment of national reflection and these are always sacred.
“Freedom is the power to reconfigure, change and transform … freedom is what shifts us from the normative, to things considered radical.”
Mpofu-Walsh said if apartheid was only thought of as something of the past, we’ve failed to see how it has spilt over and contributed to the present. “These days of national celebration are beginning to ring increasingly hollow.”
Nyembezi gave a more positive outlook, pointing to South Africa’s steps in acquiring vaccines, regular elections and that the voters’ profile is shifting to the younger generations.