What does Freedom Day mean to poor SA?

Several people interviewed by CAJ News here said the only difference between the post independence era and before gaining freedom was that the majority can vote, and nothing else developmental.

While the country’s constitution is regarded as the best in Africa, implementation of the constitution was the main dilemma the country is faced with.

AS CAJ News Agency crew goes into streets of Johannesburg, mainly the poor black townships of Soweto, Diepsloot, Alexandra and Katlehong filed this report.

Arthur Breakfast (58) of Roodport in Westage, said there was nothing to celebrate about in a country where majority of the people did not have decent houses, no free education and unemployement is high.

“Nothing has changed much except that we have a black adminsistered government with a black president. The rich blacks are getting richest while the poor become the poorest.

“Tender prenuership and corruption are the orders of the day. High class society go with high class houses while sub-standard houses (RDP) are for the poor,” said Breakfast.

Princes Rambuda (41) of Westgate, (Pictured) said she has degrees in Education, Administration and Diploma in Primary Health, but was never promoted at work.

“The ANC government keeps making empty promises to the people yet we are not seeing those jobs being created,” said Rambuda.

Margaret Molwatha (Pictured) said she is worried that racism continues to take centre stage despite the fact the blacks and whites were living together since 1994.

“There is nothing to celebrate when whites and blacks do not see eye-to-eye. We need true reconciliation,” said Molwatha.

Miyelani Tinyiko of Diepsloot said it was good that the country was hosting the historic 2010 FIFA World Cup, but bemoaned poor service delivery, corruption and the support of tyrants such as Zimbabwean dictator president Robert Mugabe.

He said for the black governments throughout Africa to succeed they do away with the so-called “comradeship”.

He also acstigated that the African governments did not have the word “maintenance” in their vocabulary except the word “fixing”, making it difficult to run their governments smoothly.

“From Cape to Cairo there is no word called maintenance in African vocabulary- except the word fixing.

“So, how would African governments maintain their economies when they do not even the word ‘maintain’?,” asked Tiyani.

National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) said celebrating sixteen years of freedom did not make much sense when the country experiences inequality in terms of preferential treatment in government tenders, race and favouritism.

“We have never seen any sharing of wealth during good economic times and we therefore find it unacceptable that workers should now sacrifice more than they have already in difficult times. “We are determined to eliminate colonial and apartheid income inequality and the skills training deficit of the overwhelming majority of our people in particular Black people,” said Castro Ngobese, NUMSA spokesman.

He said the metal labour body would make use of collective bargaining to continue fighting for the abolition of labour brokers.

“For us celebrating sixteen years of advances made by our democracy means intensifying the struggle to roll back the barbarism of Capitalism and to fundamentally transform the colonial character of our economy,” said Ngobese.

Addressing Democractic Alliance (DA) supporters at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg, party president, Helen Zille, said freedom was the right to use the power of the people’s vote to change the government.

“We all have memories of our very first Freedom Day. We all know where we were on 27 April 1994. We all have treasured memories of the long queues and the camaraderie as we, the people, took our first big step towards nation building.

“But there was one thing that really marked that day above all else. It was the fact that we, the ordinary people understood our power. We understood that our vote was our power,” said Zille.

She said the ANC government was abusing its power hence not attending to people’s grievances.

“The more power they get, the more free they are to do what they like. So they ask the people to give them more and more power.

“They pretend that this will make it easier to do more for the people. But the opposite happens. The more power the people give to a small powerful group, the more the powerful few abuse that power, to enrich themselves, and their families and their political friends (with jobs, tenders and contracts) while the people suffer.

“Every nation has to learn this lesson for itself: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is the most important lesson we have learnt since our first freedom day 16 years ago.

“The constitutional court is the symbol of the power of ordinary people. It is the institution that upholds the Constitution, that defends our rights, freedoms and opportunities and that stands between us and power abuse,” said Zille.

The African National Congress (ANC) called upon all South Africans to dedicate the 16th anniversary celebration of Freedom Day by paying the much- deserved tribute to the many heroes and countless martyrs of the struggle like Matthews Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, Fort Calata, Sicelo Mhlawuli, Vuyisile Mini, Solomon Mahlangu, Ruth First, Ashley Kriel, Chris Hani, Niel Aggett and Steve Biko among those who fought and died the country.

“Preserving this freedom through fighting crime and corruption; volunteering ourselves to work for good causes in our townships and suburbs; and working alongside Government in ensuring success of its programmes will certainly go a long way in preserving the legacy of our freedom,” said Brian Sokutu, ANC spokesman.