Every year the public holiday of Freedom Day comes shortly after the Jewish Festival of Passover which recounts the great epic of the Israelite liberation from slavery in Egypt.
This is a happy coincidence as the freedom struggle in South Africa drew inspiration from this Biblical story.
The autobiography of ANC Leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Chief Albert Luthuli is entitled "Let my people go", a cry that has rung across the centuries to oppressed people everywhere.
Last year, in an address to the Rhema Church, Jacob Zuma said: "The story of Moses and his mission as a man of God inspired many an oppressed people and made them realise that indeed God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed."
But it is striking that shortly after escaping Egypt, the grumbling starts in the desert: "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?"
They even reminisced about life in Egypt, including foods that they are unlikely to have had as slaves.