PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) – South Africa has marked 30 years since then the end of apartheid and the birth of its democracy with a ceremony in the capital on Saturday that included a 21-gun salute and the unfurling of the nation’s multicolored flag.
But any sense of celebration of the momentous anniversary was countered by a 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 widely recognized liberation of the black majority in South Africa from the racist system of oppression that made the country a pariah for nearly half a century.
ANC has been in power since the first all-race democratic elections on April 27, 1994, the vote that officially ended apartheid.
But this Independence Day holiday commemorating the day fell amid a poignant backdrop: analysts and polls predict that the declining popularity of the party once led by Nelson Mandela likely to lose its parliamentary majority for the first time as a new generation 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 be compared to the day freedom was born,” Ramaphosa said in a speech focused on the nostalgia of 1994, when black people were allowed to vote for the first time, the once banned ANC came to power and Mandela became the country’s first black president. “South Africa has changed forever. It signaled a new chapter in our nation’s history, a moment that reverberated across Africa and around the world.
“On that day, the dignity of all people in South Africa was restored,” Ramaphosa said.
The president, who stood in front of a banner emblazoned with the word ‘Freedom’, also acknowledged the major problems South Africa still faces three decades later great poverty and inequality, issues that will once again be central when millions vote on May 29. Ramaphosa admitted there had been “setbacks”.
The 1994 elections changed South Africa from a country where blacks and other non-whites were denied most basic freedoms, not least the right to vote. Laws controlled where they lived, where they were allowed to go each day, and what jobs they could have. After the fall of apartheid, a constitution was adopted that guaranteed 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 its 62 million population, still deeply affected by severe poverty.
The official unemployment rate is 32%, the highest in the world and more than 60% for young people between the ages of 15 and 24. More than 16 million South Africans – 25% of the country – rely on monthly allowances 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 from apartheid remains 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 remarkable time, it is now overshadowed by unemployment, violent crime, corruption and near collapse of basic services like electricity and water that plague South Africa in 2024.
It is also poignant that many South Africans who never had apartheid and were called “born free” are now old enough to vote.
Outside the tent where Ramaphosa spoke to mostly dignitaries and politicians, a group of young black South Africans born after 1994 who support a new political party called Rise Mzansi wore T-shirts with the words “2024 is our 1994” emblazoned on them. Their message was that they were looking beyond the ANC and looking for another change for their future in next month’s elections.
“They don’t know what happened before 1994. They don’t know,” said Seth Mazibuko, an elder supporter of Rise Mzansi and a prominent anti-apartheid activist in the 1970s.
“Let’s agree that we got it wrong,” Mazibuko said of the past 30 years, which have left the youth behind him directly affected by the world’s second-worst youth unemployment rate after Djibouti.
He added: “There is another chance at the election next month.”
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Gerald Imray reported from Cape Town.
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AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
