Freedom in South Africa is a mirage

THE nation celebrated Freedom Day with pomp and paegentry.

Flowery language from our out of touch leaders added to the carnival atmosphere that enmeshed our beleaguered and broken country. The grim reality is that our freedom is a mirage.

Gender equality is a mirage, as our women are commodified. Our poor are treated with contempt; for them freedom remains meaningless. The unemployed and the destitute have lost all hope as freedom is a fleeting promise that has evaded them for 27 years.

True liberty encompasses four cardinal components: freedom, justice, happiness and the truth. How can we unashamedly celebrate Freedom Day when millions of South Africans go to bed hungry every night? We must reaffirm that freedom of want is a right, not merely a matter of compassion.

Freedom means nothing to more than 10 million unemployed people who struggle to survive on a daily basis, eking out a living from handouts and thrown-away food. Freedom loses it’s essence when only 17 in 100 South Africans have medical aid/insurance. How do we equate freedom with the nearly 7 500 children under the age of 5 who die annually as a direct result of hunger?

Sadly, in today’s environment our government and it’s pathetic leaders have been given the freedom to lie. Like fake news, Freedom Day is a fake celebration applauded by fake leaders who with their fake promises have lulled us into a fake sense of security.

Twenty-seven years ago we were freed from the shackles of tyranny, only to be imprisoned by abject poverty and relentless crimes of all shades. Freedom has ceased to exist in South Africa.

Anyone surveying our shattered landscape will realise that freedom in our Rainbow Nation is a fleeting illusion. We have only one freedom in our land, and that is the freedom to lie on a daily basis.

FAROUK ARAIE |