Cry Freedom
It’s Freedom Day in South Africa and Terence Pillay asks the question: how free are we really?
We’re celebrating Freedom Day, which represents our freedom from past oppressions. But are we really free? Perhaps we need to ask this question to Julius Malema, who wants to be free so badly he’s named his political party after it.
In essence, we’ve only been free for twenty two years. People don’t have to carry a dompas and we have freedom of movement, so those are the things we need to celebrate. We can now claim our public spaces. We can spend more time seeing how the other half lives through this freedom of movement. But do we actually have a shared sense of community?
Freedom means different things to different people. For the middle class it means freedom from security threats, safety, general security; but for the guy who lives on the street, it’s the polar opposite and I would suggest that they’re not actually free. There needs to be a baseline of freedom – we have freedom of movement, freedom of association, a free press and lots of other things that we have in place post 1994. I can get into my car and drive anywhere without the fear of being stopped and told I’m not allowed to be in a certain place.
But on the flipside you have this security enclave, which is developing these wealthy gated estates, where people don’t have freedom of movement. You get to a boom gate where you are given the third degree before entry. There are also these gated streets, which by the way are actually illegal, and you have to ask yourself: “Is that freedom?” So I, as a person walking on that street, will get stopped and get asked why I’m there and what my business is in that community, and this is actually an infringement on my freedom of movement.
Then if you ask the colourful leader of the EFF, we still need to get to a place of economic freedom. And it should come to the majority of the people living in this country because with economic freedom, the better the education. Right now, we have these really bad public schools because government says there’s a lack of budget. So there are some fundamental freedoms that we enjoy as a result of the constitution, but there are some freedoms that are good only on paper.
The freedom of opportunity or access to opportunity is not guaranteed because of one’s social or economic circumstances, where you were born and so on. At the moment, in certain quarters of this country, there’s only the perception of freedom. The fact that there’s such a high illiteracy rate speaks to this. People opine that it behoves government to maintain this status quo; illiterate people are easy to manipulate after all.
And conspiracy theorists might say it’s in the government’s interest to have x-million people unemployed and getting a social grant because it’s creating a dependency and through that dependence, they can insist on your vote. It’s simply a matter of: “If you do not vote for me, I will not give you this food parcel and you will not get your social grant for the three children that you have and your disabled mother or whatever else comes with it”; there are in fact countless social grants that you can claim.
As an aside, the great thing is that the public protector is investigating food parcels at election rallies. There’s a draft report out about this very subject. What I would like to know is who’s paying for it? Is the political party running the rally paying for the food parcel, or are the funds coming from the Department of Social Development? The fact that the ruling party controls this department and co-incidentally food parcels are being handed out at these rallies needs to be investigated further. But that’s for another discussion.
I think a lot of people see Freedom Day as just another public holiday – the same as Workers Day, which is our next public holiday. This year Workers Day falls on a Sunday, meaning we’ll observe it on the Monday, 2 May. It’s a sad reality the majority of workers, for which this day is actually set aside, will be at work – I’m talking about cashiers, cleaners drivers and so on because some supermarkets, for example will still operate eight to eight on that day. What would be really nice is if all managers and people in that class of worker went to work on that day, giving the actual workers a day of rest. That would be freedom!
So what’s happening to significantly commemorate Freedom Day today? There’s probably a stadium filled with people somewhere listening to empty promises from an empty politician followed by Beyonce performing with Freshly Ground or something. And who’s paying for all of this pomp and grand gesturing?
At the end of the day, the point I’m making is that the material circumstances of people in this country pre-1994 had to have been worse than they are now and I realise that some people will say that it’s not. But you didn’t have freedom back then. And you certainly didn’t have the freedom of self-determination. Yes, you can be a victim of the system and you can say I’m born in a poor community without services and a really bad school – and I’m not saying that its right that you have to struggle – but this is the problem with an opportunity-based society; you have to fight to break free of your lack of birthright.
Some people are born into a society or a community that is well resourced, you have educated parents and you have every opportunity open to you. Yes, of-course you have to pay for it. But other people are born into very different circumstances, so in that sense if you want to break free of the cycle of poverty, it takes determination and grit to do it.
At the end of the day, our freedom was hard-won and the average South African is still fighting for that freedom every day, so do not take it for granted. The fact that you can go anywhere, assemble, associate and be free is a big deal – make it count!
Do you believe that South Africans are truly free?
You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @terencepillay1 and tweet him your thoughts.
In essence, we’ve only been free for twenty two years. People don’t have to carry a dompas and we have freedom of movement, so those are the things we need to celebrate. We can now claim our public spaces. We can spend more time seeing how the other half lives through this freedom of movement. But do we actually have a shared sense of community?
Freedom means different things to different people. For the middle class it means freedom from security threats, safety, general security; but for the guy who lives on the street, it’s the polar opposite and I would suggest that they’re not actually free. There needs to be a baseline of freedom – we have freedom of movement, freedom of association, a free press and lots of other things that we have in place post 1994. I can get into my car and drive anywhere without the fear of being stopped and told I’m not allowed to be in a certain place.
But on the flipside you have this security enclave, which is developing these wealthy gated estates, where people don’t have freedom of movement. You get to a boom gate where you are given the third degree before entry. There are also these gated streets, which by the way are actually illegal, and you have to ask yourself: “Is that freedom?” So I, as a person walking on that street, will get stopped and get asked why I’m there and what my business is in that community, and this is actually an infringement on my freedom of movement.
Then if you ask the colourful leader of the EFF, we still need to get to a place of economic freedom. And it should come to the majority of the people living in this country because with economic freedom, the better the education. Right now, we have these really bad public schools because government says there’s a lack of budget. So there are some fundamental freedoms that we enjoy as a result of the constitution, but there are some freedoms that are good only on paper.
The freedom of opportunity or access to opportunity is not guaranteed because of one’s social or economic circumstances, where you were born and so on. At the moment, in certain quarters of this country, there’s only the perception of freedom. The fact that there’s such a high illiteracy rate speaks to this. People opine that it behoves government to maintain this status quo; illiterate people are easy to manipulate after all.
And conspiracy theorists might say it’s in the government’s interest to have x-million people unemployed and getting a social grant because it’s creating a dependency and through that dependence, they can insist on your vote. It’s simply a matter of: “If you do not vote for me, I will not give you this food parcel and you will not get your social grant for the three children that you have and your disabled mother or whatever else comes with it”; there are in fact countless social grants that you can claim.
As an aside, the great thing is that the public protector is investigating food parcels at election rallies. There’s a draft report out about this very subject. What I would like to know is who’s paying for it? Is the political party running the rally paying for the food parcel, or are the funds coming from the Department of Social Development? The fact that the ruling party controls this department and co-incidentally food parcels are being handed out at these rallies needs to be investigated further. But that’s for another discussion.
I think a lot of people see Freedom Day as just another public holiday – the same as Workers Day, which is our next public holiday. This year Workers Day falls on a Sunday, meaning we’ll observe it on the Monday, 2 May. It’s a sad reality the majority of workers, for which this day is actually set aside, will be at work – I’m talking about cashiers, cleaners drivers and so on because some supermarkets, for example will still operate eight to eight on that day. What would be really nice is if all managers and people in that class of worker went to work on that day, giving the actual workers a day of rest. That would be freedom!
So what’s happening to significantly commemorate Freedom Day today? There’s probably a stadium filled with people somewhere listening to empty promises from an empty politician followed by Beyonce performing with Freshly Ground or something. And who’s paying for all of this pomp and grand gesturing?
At the end of the day, the point I’m making is that the material circumstances of people in this country pre-1994 had to have been worse than they are now and I realise that some people will say that it’s not. But you didn’t have freedom back then. And you certainly didn’t have the freedom of self-determination. Yes, you can be a victim of the system and you can say I’m born in a poor community without services and a really bad school – and I’m not saying that its right that you have to struggle – but this is the problem with an opportunity-based society; you have to fight to break free of your lack of birthright.
Some people are born into a society or a community that is well resourced, you have educated parents and you have every opportunity open to you. Yes, of-course you have to pay for it. But other people are born into very different circumstances, so in that sense if you want to break free of the cycle of poverty, it takes determination and grit to do it.
At the end of the day, our freedom was hard-won and the average South African is still fighting for that freedom every day, so do not take it for granted. The fact that you can go anywhere, assemble, associate and be free is a big deal – make it count!
Do you believe that South Africans are truly free?
You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @terencepillay1 and tweet him your thoughts.