Little to celebrate, says DA in province
With SA commemorating Freedom Day, the DA in the Eastern Cape saw little to celebrate, citing the nation’s deepening economic and leadership crisis.
On Thursday, 29 years ago, South Africans swept aside three centuries of white minority rule and held the country’s first fully democratic elections.
Provincial leader Andrew Whitfield addressed a group of about 50 people at the historical South End Museum in Gqeberha yesterday.
Whitfield said real freedom could only be fully realised when individual South Africans were liberated from the shackles of an overbearing state.
“We need to change the government, of course, but beyond that we need to reimagine and reinvent the kind of society we want to live in and leave to generations to come,” Whitfield said. “You see, in 1994 many freedoms were won, but the heart of the problem had not changed and real freedom could therefore not be realised.”
Whitfield also took swipes at the governing party.
“Just as South Africans united against the oppressive apartheid state we will come together to remove the corrupt, self-serving and morally bankrupt ANC government.
“You see any government that seeks to divide individual South Africans along racial lines is not a government committed to real freedom ... any government that steals from the poor to give to the rich is not committed to real freedom.”
First deputy secretary-general of the ANC, Nomvula Mokonyane, told The Herald the DA was not in sync with reality.
“It remains a racist party; there is a lot to celebrate,” Mokonyane said.
“If you have been a victim of apartheid you will appreciate that it is worth celebrating ... this day commemorates our long and difficult struggle for freedom.”
Gqeberha activist Tango Lamani said Freedom Day was imperative to commemorate.
“For me the importance of April 27 1994 is that it ushered in a national democracy,” Lamani said.
“I will always celebrate this day, I am proud of who and what I am, and the fall of apartheid is surely a reason to celebrate.”