We’ve come a long, long way in these 22 years

The lines of this song hold special resonance on the 27th of April.

“Yinde lendlela esiyihambayo. Wash’u uMandela kubalandeli bakhe, wathi sodibana nge- Freedom Day.” 

“I’m very happy for what Nelson Mandela did for us because today I can work and share the same office as white people, it wasn’t possible before.”

While the official Freedom Day celebrations happened in Limpopo on Wednesday, the ANC celebrated Freedom Day under the theme “Freedom is in Your Hands”. The day began with a 4km parade, “Walk 4 Freedom”, from the Palace of Justice to the Union Buildings, led by Gauteng Premier David Makhura.

“I’m so happy today because of is a freedom day, I love freedom day because my child can go to school for free because of freedom day. I love Tata Mandela with all my heart for what he did for us and I also wish he was still alive to appreciate all this since it’s difficult to thank someone who already passed on,” said Mboniwelo Bathani.

Meanwhile in his keynote address, President Zuma warned those who “have decided to make it their full-time job to deny these achievements of our country, and to rubbish our country locally and abroad. We must not allow them to succeed”.

“Freedom means that we are expected as the future generation is coming through to have leadership values, the first one is the dignity and respect for our people and that is part of legacy from our forefathers and grand forefathers that as Africans we need to live as examples and we need to be the right role models. Even at work we believe that we are a product of a community in terms of how we work and how we walk as well as how we do our work is very important because we have feature leaders looking up to us whom we need to make sure that we mould in the right values. We have to show them what we have learnt from old veterans and from Madiba, as well as what Madiba and his comrades have left for us to emulate as we go forward. I have benefitted a lot from freedom because I got a scholarship to study overseas at the age of fourteen. I also benefitted for staying in England for seven years and studied for my BSC honours while I was there,” said Sindisiwe Dlamini.

But in Jozi Right2Know’s Godfrey Phiri said politicians are sowing division among South Africans. “Enough is enough… We should stop politicians from calling people white and black. We are not laundry. We are human beings,” he is quoted to have said. 

“ I benefited job opportunities from freedom and as a breadwinner, I’m a breadwinner at home and managed to take about four siblings to university with my money out of my pocket, not from NSFAS or anything and they’re all graduated. Freedom gave me liberty and power to be able to support my family. Today I’m very proud, I can rest in peace that all my siblings are very educated,” said Zwelibanzi Gwiba.

The EFF points out however, that economic freedom remains elusive for many South Africans. 

“Without the land, our democracy traps the whole society into a fast-approaching time bomb,” the party said in a statement.

“Freedom means now everybody can stay in a peaceful nation,” young Dominique Goa said.