PRETORIA, South Africa –
South Africa marked 30 years since 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 waving of the nation’s multicolored flag.
But any sense of celebration for the momentous anniversary was belied by growing discontent with the current government.
President Cyril Ramaphosa chaired the meeting in a huge white tent on the grounds of government buildings in Pretoria as head of state.
He also spoke as leader of the African National Congress party, which is widely credited with liberating South Africa’s black majority from the racist system of oppression that made the country a pariah for nearly half a century.
The ANC has been in power since the first multiracial democratic elections on April 27, 1994, the vote that officially ended apartheid.
But this Freedom Day holiday marking that day took place amid a poignant backdrop: Analysts and polls predict that the waning popularity of the party once led by Nelson Mandela is likely to see it lose its parliamentary majority for the first time. time as a new generation of South Africans. make his voice heard in what could be the most important election since 1994 next month.
“Few days in the life of our nation can compare with that day when freedom was born,” Ramaphosa said in a speech focused on nostalgia for 1994, when black people were first allowed to vote, the once-banned ANC . came to power and Mandela became the country’s first black president. “South Africa changed forever. “It marked a new chapter in our nation’s history, a moment that resonated across Africa and around the world.”
“On that day the dignity of all the people of South Africa was restored,” Ramaphosa said.
The president, who stood in front of a banner emblazoned with the word “Freedom,” also acknowledged the big problems that South Africa still has three decades later with great poverty and inequality, issues that will once again be central when millions of people vote on December 29. May. Ramaphosa admitted there had been “setbacks”.
The 1994 elections changed South Africa from a country where blacks and other non-white people were denied most basic freedoms, not just the right to vote. Laws controlled where they lived, where they were allowed to go on a given 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 race, religion, gender or sexuality.
But that has not significantly improved the lives of millions of people, as South Africa’s black majority, which makes up more than 80 percent of the population of 62 million, remains overwhelmingly affected by extreme poverty.
The official unemployment rate is 32 percent, the highest in the world, and more than 60 percent for young people aged 15 to 24. More than 16 million South Africans (25 percent of the country) rely on monthly social assistance. survival grants.
South Africa remains the most unequal country in the world in terms of wealth distribution, according to the World Bank, and race is a key factor.
While the damage of apartheid remains difficult to repair, 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 free from apartheid meant to them. The dominant response was that while 1994 was a historic moment, it is now overshadowed by unemployment, violent crime, corruption and the near collapse of basic services such as electricity and water that will hit South Africa in 2024.
It is also poignant that many South Africans who never experienced apartheid and are referred to as “born free” are now old enough to vote.
Outside the tent where Ramaphosa spoke in front of mostly dignitaries and politicians, a group of young black South Africans born after 1994 and who support a new political party called Rise Mzansi wore T-shirts with the words “2024 is our 1994.” Their message was that they were looking beyond the ANC and seeking 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, a former Rise Mzansi supporter and well-known anti-apartheid activist in the 1970s.
“We agree that we made a mistake,” Mazibuko said of the past 30 years, which have left the young people behind him directly affected by the second-worst youth unemployment rate in the world, behind Djibouti.
And he added: “There is a new opportunity in next month’s elections.”
Gerald Imray reported from Cape Town.