Celebrate, yes, but reflect also on the hard lessons

Writing in the Sunday Times just days before millions of South Africans queued to vote for the first time as equal citizens in the eyes of the law, the then editor Ken Owen remarked on the great work that lay ahead for the new nation.

“For South Africa, the election marks the end of 342 years of white hegemony, for Africa, it completes the liberation of a continent, for the world, it is the final repudiation of institutionalised European racism…

“The election also opens the door to the next phase of change, a greater transformation… the collapse of vast administrative structures, not only the Bantustans of the apartheid era but also the provincial framework laid down in 1909,” he wrote.

South Africa is a whole new, different country today. Much of the transformation Owen spoke about in his editorial has successfully occurred over the three decades, even though much more clearly still needs to be done.

Very few, if any, would genuinely dispute that the country we live in now is far better than the apartheid world we were subjected to prior to the 1994 breakthrough.

Hence this week’s celebrations over democracy’s 30th anniversary are more than justified, especially considering that transitions from one political and social system to another do not often happen with the relative peace and stability of the South African experience.

Just looking at some of our immediate neighbours, you realise how fortunate we have been.

Soon after gaining independence, Mozambique and Angola plunged into crippling civil wars that were partly sponsored by foreign powers including the apartheid state.

These civil wars set the two countries back several decades in economic development and meant that, for the vast majority of their people, poverty would be their fate.

Although Zimbabwe, which gained independence just five years after the other two, never suffered a postindependence civil war, its first three decades were characterised by political and economic stability arising from political contestation.

Although democratic South Africa has had its fair share of problems, they have not been as severe as those of our three neighbours. No matter how unhappy they might be, none of our national groups has reached a stage where it repudiates the idea of being one nation.

The South African flag, and all other symbols of our sovereignty, are embraced by all regardless of race, class or cultural background.

But it would be a lost opportunity if we were to use the anniversary only to pat ourselves on the back and dance in celebration without reflecting on the journey travelled so far and the lessons learnt that would help us build an even better society over the next 30 years and more.

The anniversary arrives at a time when the country is not in a great space, largely because of rising corruption, falling service delivery standards, state incapacity, rising crime and general lawlessness.

The failure of democratic South Africa to deliver jobs to millions of citizens — some of whom will reach retirement age in the next decade without ever having held a fulltime job — is causing many to question the political settlement that led to the establishment of a new nation.

Young people, especially in underprivileged communities, are becoming restless and increasingly find themselves attracted to the politics of polarisation that characterise many of our populist politicians.

In the absence of mainstream leaders who act and speak in a way that assures them of a brighter future, they are turning to those who point to the past — especially the negotiated settlement — as the source of their troubles.

While history is important, no society succeeds by merely dwelling on it without envisioning a clear path to the future.

It has been 30 years since formal apartheid officially ended.

While many of the problems we face today can be traced back to that history, we ought not be beholden to our past.

What should be dominating our conversations, especially in an election year, is how to construct a future South Africa in which no-one can see any trace of the apartheid past.

As one African poet and novelist put it a few years ago, it is not enough just to speak of a people’s history of oppression and suffering, to celebrate that freedom is a reality at last; the important story to tell is the one about what they did with that freedom.

We have done much with ours so far, but it is not enough.

There are many more hills to climb before we call ourselves a truly free and prosperous nation.

To the next 30 years.