Achi news desk-
South Africa marked 30 years since the end of apartheid and the birth of its democracy in a ceremony in the capital on Saturday that included a 21-gun salute and the raising of the nation’s national flag.
But any sense of celebration on the important anniversary was met with growing discontent with the current government.
President Cyril Ramaphosa presided over the gathering in a huge white tent in the gardens of the Government Buildings in Pretoria as head of state.
He also spoke as the leader of the African National Congress party, which was credited with liberating the black majority in South Africa from the racist system of oppression that had made the country a pariah for nearly half a century.
The ANC has been in power since the first all-race democratic elections on 27 April 1994, the vote that officially ended apartheid.
But this holiday celebrated this day off fell against a poignant backdrop: analysts and pollsters predict that the declining popularity of the party formerly led by Nelson Mandela is likely to see it lose its parliamentary majority for the first time in a new wave of South Africans. make their voices heard in what could be the most important election since 1994 next month.
“Few days in the life of our nation can compare to that day, when freedom was born,” Ramaphosa said in a speech centering on the nostalgia of 1994, when black people were allowed to vote for the first time, the previously banned ANC. swept into power, and Mandela became the country’s first black president. “South Africa was changed forever. It marked a new chapter in our nation’s history, a moment that reverberated throughout Africa and around the world.”
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“On that day the dignity of all South Africans was restored,” said Ramaphosa.
The president, standing in front of a banner emblazoned with the word “freedom,” also identified the main problems South Africa still faces three decades later with massive poverty and inequality, issues that will be central again when millions vote on May 29. Ramaphosa admitted there had been “failures”.
The 1994 election changed South Africa from a country where blacks and other non-whites were denied most basic freedoms, not just the right to vote. The laws controlled where they lived, where they were allowed to go on any given day, and what jobs they could get. After the fall of apartheid, a constitution was adopted guaranteeing the rights of all South Africans regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexuality.
But this has not significantly improved the lives of millions, with South Africa’s black majority, who make up more than 80% of the 62 million population, still overwhelmingly affected by severe poverty.
The official unemployment rate is 32%, the highest in the world, and more than 60% for young people aged 15 to 24. More than 16 million South Africans – 25% of the country – rely on monthly welfare grants to survive.
South Africa is still the most unequal country in the world in terms of wealth distribution, according to the World Bank, with race being a key factor.
Although the damage of apartheid is difficult to undo, the ANC is increasingly blamed for South Africa’s current problems.
In the week leading up to the anniversary, countless South Africans were asked what 30 years of freedom from apartheid meant to them. The dominant response was that while 1994 was a watershed moment, it is now overshadowed by the unemployment, violent crime, corruption and near-collapse of basic services such as electricity and water that plague South Africa in 2024.
It is also poignant that many South Africans who never experienced apartheid and are known as “born free” are now old enough to vote.
Outside the tent where Ramaphosa spoke to dignitaries and mainly politicians, a group of young black South Africans born after 1994 and supporters of a new political party called Rise Mzansi wore shirts reading “2024 is our 1994”. Their message was that they were looking for a transition to the ANC and further change for their future in next month’s elections.
“They don’t know what happened before 1994. They don’t know,” said Seth Maziboko, an older supporter of Rise Mzansi and a well-known anti-apartheid activist in the 1970s.
“Let’s agree that we screwed up,” Maziboko said of the past 30 years, which have left the young people behind him directly affected by the second-highest youth unemployment rate in the world behind Djibouti.
He added: “There is a new chance in the elections next month.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
