South Africa today: 20 years after April (1994) elections

Freedom Day on 27 April is an annual celebration of South Africa's first non-racial democratic elections of 1994. It is significant because it marks the end of over more than three hundred years of colonialism, segregation and white minority rule and this followed by the establishment of a new democratic government led by Mr. Nelson Mandela under the African National Congress (ANC) on 27th April 1994. 

The holding of these democratic elections came through a Kemptom Park negotiated settlement between the ANC, and the National Party which led to the unbanning of the liberation movements, such ANC, PAC, AZAPO, SACP and the release of political prisoners.

The settlement was finally unveiled and upon which the April 94 elections were based, many believed that the settlement entrenched white supremacy in the country and it was incapable of transformation our society to a socialist egalitarian one. And they believed that this Kempton arrangement was flawed in the very beginning. It was a result of secret agreements meant to homour the white minority and protects their ill-gotten privileges.

This gave Blacks a false sense of freedom, thereby demolishing them, while allowing those who were in power for decades to dominate our people with the support of a supposedly legitimate constitution.

So, while our people were happy to have a Black president and some black cabinet ministers but the reality of matter was that they remained a powerless nation. It follows therefore that ANC government is in office not in power.

The guaranteeing of property clauses in the constitution in our case legitimise centuries of land robbery and of wealth accumulation through exploitation of Black labour and almost exclusive access to the national resources of our country.

This means that Blacks will remain essentially a nation of beggars, workers and servants in their country of their forefathers, and this further means that we will never climb out of quagmire of poverty for another century to come.

In the past 20 years of ANC governance nothing has changed for the better as far as the Black majority is concerned. Things are falling apart in certain aspects of our lives, and it is clear that the April (1994) elections were simply a lot of promised words designed to lead the masses down to the garden path.

That explains why the numbers are decreasing in recent national elections. The people are not ignorant, or confused as some would like us to believe. They are angry for being taken for a ride. Almost 20 years after ANC took office there is no indication whatsoever that the land ownership patterns will change.

Black people are being hounded from farms by white racist farmers and the government of the day won't lift a finger. Some are frail old men and women who have spent all their lives on those farms and neither have places to go, nor the strength to go and start off elsewhere. Many of our people resort to land invasion and suffer the indignity and pain of continued forced removals by white land owners who use the same old property laws and courts to effect the removals.

The ANC through state institution takes the side of the land owners and plays a leading role in threatening and condemning our people. It is the same story in the area of housing. The houses that were promised are nowhere to be seen. When this government builds houses it builds toilet-type houses which dehumanize our people. Again our desperate people resort to house invasions and the police are used to effect evictions.

We cannot encourage anarchy and chaos but what homeless people supposed to do when those who are in power are not addressing their plight. It is only in Black areas where our children still have to learn under trees or suffer from overcrowding. It is only Black schools where several months after opening of schools, stationery and text books have still not delivered. Sadtu aligned teachers are not teaching.

The health sector is another disaster. There is a shortage of nurses, doctors and medicines in public hospitals and clinics. Some public hospitals have no linen and beds, forcing patients to bring their own bed sheets and gowns when admitted. These hospitals have collapsed because discipline has broken down long time ago. Patients die under the nose of doctors and nurses who would not even lift a finger, because they don't care.  

We are also outraged by the number of corruption scandals in this country committed by ANC cabinet ministers, and their officials breaking out all over the show. Corruption is like an ulcer that that is refusing to heal in this country, and there is no level of government that is immune from this scourge. The danger of corrupt leadership is that it makes our people to lose confidence in the very structures that are meant to fight their plight and enhance the quality of their lives.

Some of us see no value in the explanation that corruption is not necessary not higher than in the past, and that is only because of higher degree of transparency and commitment to clean our corruption that so many cases have become public. Corrupt individuals should be regarded as enemies of this democracy. There is a need for all political parties to lend credibility to institutions like the Public Protector by taking very strong disciplinary measures against public representatives who conducted themselves in a manner that is not benefitting their standard.

And President Zuma must take stern action against this ulcer of corruption and surely he will have a complete support from the entire nation. Failing to do so his administration will continue to rendermediocre education, corruption, and poor state of health, inferior housing and infrastructure, high levels of unemployment, high levels of drug and alcohol consumption, grant-dependency syndrome and many other negative factors.

All these factors clearly indicate to us that black people must fight for genuine power because it is not yet Uhuru (freedom) under the ANC administration.

Thole Somdaka serves in AZAPO's Communication Desk, and he writes in his personal capacity

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