Pretoria – President Jacob Zuma will speak at the Freedom Day national celebrations in Giyani, Limpopo, on Wednesday, the presidency said.
The 2016 celebrations were to be held under the theme “Together building better communities – local government is everybody’s business”, the presidency said in a statement on Sunday.
Freedom Day was celebrated annually to celebrate freedom and democracy and also to commemorate the first post-apartheid elections held on April 27, 1994.
The elections were the first non-racial national elections where everyone of voting age from any race group was allowed to vote. The month of April was observed as Freedom Month for the symbolism that April 27, 1994 represented.
This year’s commemoration of Freedom Day coincided with the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, the 40th anniversary of the June 16 uprising, and the 60th anniversary of the women’s march to the Union Buildings.
“We call on all South Africans to mark this important day on which the nation triumphed over racism and subjugation. On this day we will be promoting unity and working together to build a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, and prosperous South Africa,” Zuma said.
The 2016 Freedom Day theme encouraged South Africans to play a constructive role in local government, especially in ensuring the building of united and better communities where people worked together with government to meet developmental challenges.
African News Agency (ANA)