The 1994 elections revealed optimism in the country. However developments since then have left many despondent. Mashupye Maserumule writes the question of 'whose freedom is it anyway' has the potential to delegitimise freedom day and it is concerning.
In his book Rainbow Nation Revisited journalist and anti-apartheid activist Donald Woods takes us down memory lane.
He writes, "suddenly the long nightmare of apartheid was ending, and the horrors of four decades of racial oppression began to give way to the bright hopes that had seemed such a distant dream to so many for long".
This is what the first democratic elections in South Africa meant. The day was 27 April 1994. South Africans from all walks of life had come to cast their vote after many years of colonial and apartheid systems that had denied particularly blacks this right. The interim constitution of 1993, which had come into operation following its adoption by 237 votes to 45 on 22 December 1993 in the erstwhile tricameral Parliament to replace the apartheid system of government made all this legally possible.
Those elections had instantiated optimism. The adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa in 1996, which came into operation on 4 February 1997 to replace the interim constitution, reinforced this. More than 2 million ordinary South Africans had participated in its making. It consummated the democratic project.
Tryst with destiny
However, lest we forget, the country's democracy did not come on a silver platter. Many sacrificed their lives for it. When the interim constitution extended the right to vote to all citizens above the age of 18 years many knew that this was an opportunity which could not be traded for anything.
Snaking queues across the country, coupled with the imperfections of the electoral system and the right-wing threat to derail the elections, did little to dampen the spirit of participating in the political process intended to seal the country's tryst with destiny.
27 April is enshrined in the annals of the country's history. It is emblematic in its historical consciousness. Its anniversary triggers nostalgia of how South Africa crossed the Rubicon. And some had characterised its democratic revolution as miraculous. Others had thought that it was all going to turn internecine and end up in a bloodbath. This did not happen. Instead, palpable in the buoyancy of many on that day was that their votes meant the dystopia South Africa had been for many years was ending, to give way to the evolution of a good society.
In his Manifesto of Good Society, Mark Sharlow says a better model to create a good society is great democratic revolutions and struggles for independence. All these South Africa had achieved. But does this necessarily mean a good society in the post-apartheid South Africa has evolved as the consequence of the 1994 democratic breakthrough?
The anniversary of the country's democracy makes this question apposite. However, the answer is not linear, but a function of how various epochs fare towards creating a good society, and such is always in perpetual evolution marked by distinct milestones.
A good society creates opportunities for its own correction. It is not flawless and, therefore not utopia. There is no democratic revolution which has created a faultless society. However, when its flaws cause people's misery, democracy faces the risk of turning against itself. And, when this happens, its anniversary spawns incendiary moments where the grimace of discontent, particularly of those on the margins of society, finds expression.
Isn't this what freedom day has become?
Many ask this question as a reaction to surging socioeconomic disparities in South Africa which have reached alarming proportions. After almost three decades of democracy, this existential question especially by those on the margins of society remains - what does freedom day mean?
Of course, the history of the day is important. However, the answer to the question about it does not lie entirely in that history but in what has come out of it. Freedom day is, therefore, not an instance of political hubris but of reckoning and accountability. Socioeconomic disparities affront the very notion of a good society that freedom had promised.
Poverty and inequality
Poverty and unemployment drive inequality. And this has been a persistently stubborn feature of post-apartheid South Africa. It has earned the country the infamy of the most unequal society in the world.
80% of the country's wealth continues to be owned by only 10% of the population. Income inequality is grossly skewed, and poverty levels are surging. The latest data on unemployment for the fourth quarter of 2021, which Statistics South Africa recently published, shows that South Africa's unemployment rate at 35.3% has reached a historic high. This is mainly concentrated in the country's youth population where about 30 million people, using the household poverty line of R992 per month, are living in poverty. This does not bode well for the meaning of freedom day. As the former policy czar in the presidency of the Republic of South Africa Joel Nethitenhze warned, "poverty and inequality in our society are social tinder, and ever ready to catch fire".
The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the socioeconomic crisis, while the aftermath of the recent floods in the eastern part of the country occasioned by climate change is set to make things intractable.
For those who bear the brunt of these hardships, the 1994 democratic breakthrough has spawned unfinished business of democratisation. It failed to disentangle "the deep-seated underlying structural causes of economic stagnation that developed over hundreds of years of slavery, colonialism and apartheid".
Various interventions to ensure social equity and economic fairness, particularly for those who were historically marginalised, got lost in the transformation. Because of this, freedom day is becoming increasingly derided by many. This cynicism has percolated into a grievance and is often scoffed at with the intimation of whose freedom is it anyway?
In a democratic society, this question is not inappropriate but worrisome as it has the potential to delegitimise this day. It is increasingly becoming a grimace of public discontent rather than an anniversary of the country's freedom.
Democractic dividends
This is writ large in the angst of particularly the poor where hope has turned into despair. In this, the irony is that, in establishing political and governance systems based on the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law, where equality became one of the organising principles of the post-apartheid society, a social compact was forged. And, hallmarking this had been the inclusion of socioeconomic rights in the Constitution, and the political and legal mechanisms to enforce them. This has placed an obligation on the state to maximise access to resources, opportunities, and services for particularly those who are vulnerable and poverty-stricken in the margins of society.
When the Egyptians asked the American jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg about a constitutional model to look up to, she said "I would not look to the US (United States) Constitution if I were drafting a Constitution", but to that of South Africa or Canada. Of course, this venerates South Africa's democracy which American legal scholars David Law and Mila Versteeg, in their study of constitutional models across the world, had found it to be one of the influential templates for modern constitution-making distinctly because it protects socioeconomic rights.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa is an integral part of the continuum of the 1994 democratic breakthrough and, therefore, ought to be part of the meaning of freedom day but not as the ultimate measure of achievement.
Of critically importance for the meaningfulness of this day is the democratic dividends which should spawn a good society.
A democratic breakthrough not followed by socioeconomic justice makes freedom hollow. This is what the grimace of public discontent says about the freedom day and should be heeded to, not with a tint of veneration of particularly the country's constitutional system but a renewed sense of commitment to optimise the opportunities which the evolution of the post-apartheid society creates for the correction of its flaws.
Importance of the National Development Plan
And this is the urgent task of the epoch, which must start with the vigour to implement the National Development Plan (NDP). For this continues to be the most comprehensive framework for socioeconomic transformation.
The NDP was embraced by all political parties in Parliament in 2012. However, its recommendations have not been followed through earnestly. This needs to change and should include the zeal to follow through the recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture Report with action, not obfuscation.
The NDP has created an important opportunity for the post-apartheid society to correct itself. The quality of memorable days like freedom day as part of the history of this country is the function of the state's performance for the good of society. And this is how it should be understood lest it becomes nothing more than "an epic tale of missed opportunities", desecrating history and instigating the wrath of the poor rather than an anchor for social cohesion.
- Mashupye Maserumule is professor of public affairs at the Tshwane University of Technology and writes in his personal capacity.
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