Kennedy Mudzuli
ON THIS day 22 years ago, 19.7 million South Africans cast their ballots in the country’s first democratic elections.
The country had a population of 38.28 million people at the time, of which 22.7 million were eligible to vote.
Although the ANC gained a majority vote, a government of national unity was formed, headed by the party’s leader, Nelson Mandela, who was inaugurated on May 10, 1994.
The day has since been commemorated as Freedom Day to mark the liberation of the country and its people from a long period of colonialism and white minority domination.
Apartheid “officially” began in 1948, but colonialism and oppression of the black majority had plagued South Africa since 1652.
After decades of resistance, a stalemate between the liberation movement and the apartheid government was reached in 1988.
However, in February 1990 the ANC, SACP, PAC and other political organisations were eventually unbanned and a non-racial constitution agreed upon and adopted in 1993.
On April 27, 1994, the nation finally voted.
During the first anniversary of the elections in 1995, Mandela said: “On this day, you, the people, took your destiny into your own hands.
“You decided that nothing would prevent you from exercising your hard-won right to elect a government of your choice. Your patience, your discipline, your single-minded purposefulness have become a legend throughout the world.”
In 2008, his successor, Thabo Mbeki, delivering his last speech as president, said: “The brutalities of the past are testimonies that our freedom was never free.
“Although today we walk tall because (of) our collective efforts… we all still carry scars that remind us that our freedom that is at times taken for granted was never free.”
Acting president Kgalema Motlanthe said in 2009: “I am equally honoured to celebrate this important day on our national calendar in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
“For it is also here in this beautiful land of our fore-fathers that the struggle for liberation was fought by generations of heroes and heroines. And fear of death itself would not stop them…
“Their only purpose was that the next generation would live to taste the fruits of freedom.”
During the 16th anniversary of Freedom Day celebrations at the Union Buildings, President Jacob Zuma also paid tribute to the brave activists who played a role in South Africa’s liberation, saying: “As taught by our icon President Nelson Mandela, we must remain steadfast in our determination that never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.”