JOHANNESBURG — As Nonki Kunene, 72, walks through the hallways of Thabisang Primary School in Soweto, South Africa, she remembers the joy she and many others felt 30 years ago when they voted for the first time.
It was at this school on April 27, 1994 that Kunene joined millions of South Africans to brave long lines and take part in the country’s first democratic elections after decades of white minority rule that denied blacks the right to vote.
However, as the country prepares for Saturday’s celebrations of 30 years of freedom and democracy, much of the enthusiasm and optimism of that period has diminished as Africa’s most developed economy faces myriad challenges.
Like many things in South Africa, the school Kunene remembers has changed and what used to be one classroom has now become several classrooms.
“In some ways I wish we could go back to that day, because of how excited I was and the things that happened afterwards,” Kunene said, referring to Nelson Mandela as the country’s first black president and the introduction of a new constitution that gave all countries of the South Africans have equal rights, abolishing the racially discriminatory system of apartheid.
For many who lived through apartheid, those years remain etched in their collective memory.
“I can’t forget how much we suffered at the hands of white people. In the city at night there were white bikers with hair like this (describing a mohawk hairstyle) who would brutally attack a black person if they saw them walking on the sidewalk. Those white boys were cruel,” said Lily Makhanya, 87, whose late husband died while working in the underground structures of the anti-apartheid movement.
“If they saw you walking on the sidewalk, they would brutally attack you and leave you for dead.”
For Makhanya and many others who lined up to vote in 1994, it represented a turning point from a brutal past to the promise of a prosperous future.
But 30 years later, much of that optimism has evaporated amid the country’s pressing challenges. They include growing inequality as the country’s black majority continues to live in poverty with an unemployment rate of more than 32%, the highest in the world.
According to official statistics, more than 16 million South Africans depend on monthly welfare grants to survive.
Public demonstrations have become common as communities protest against the ruling African National Congress’s failure to provide job opportunities and basic services such as water and electricity.
An electricity crisis that has caused blackouts that are devastating the country’s economy has added to the party’s woes, as businesses and homes are sometimes forced to go without electricity for up to 12 hours a day.
Areas such as the affluent Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, home to beautiful skyscrapers and luxury homes, are an example of the economic success enjoyed by a minority of the country’s 60 million people.
But Alexandra township, located just a few kilometers from Sandton, is a clear reflection of the living conditions of the country’s poor black majority, where sewage from broken pipes flows through the streets and uncollected garbage is littered. accumulates on the sidewalks.
These contradictions are common in major cities, including the capital Pretoria and the city of Cape Town, and remain at the center of what is expected to be one of the country’s closest elections next month.
For the first time since the ANC came to power in 1994, polls indicate the party could receive less than 50% of the national vote, which would see it lose power unless it manages to form a coalition with some smaller parties.
For some younger voters like Donald Mkhwanazi, 24, nostalgia doesn’t resonate.
Mkhwanazi will vote for the first time in the May 29 election and is now actively campaigning for a new political party, Rise Mzansi, which will contest a national election for the first time.
“I had the opportunity to vote in 2019 and in the 2021 local elections, but I didn’t because none of these old parties convinced me enough about why I should vote,” he said.
“I didn’t see the need to vote because of what has been happening for the last 30 years. We talk about freedom, but are we free from crime, are we free from poverty? What freedom is this we are talking about?”
Political analyst Pearl Mncube said South Africans are justified in feeling failed by their leaders.
“More and more South Africans have become skeptical of the government’s pronouncements due to its history of continually announcing big plans without prioritizing the rapid execution of those plans,” Mncube said.
He said that while Freedom Day is intended to signify the country’s transition from an oppressive past, it was important to highlight current problems and plans to overcome them.
“We cannot use the past, nor the nostalgia that comes with it, to avoid accounting for the present,” he said.
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