Today (27 April), we celebrate Freedom Day. In an opinion piece in Die Burger (Tuesday, 26 April), Dr Chris Jones of the Faculty of Theology at Stellenbosch University writes that millions of South African are still not truly free after more than two decades of democracy.
Millions of South Africans still not free after two decades
Chris Jones
Every year on 27 April, South Africans celebrate Freedom Day to commemorate the first democratic elections in 1994. But this day is actually about more: it offers us the opportunity to reflect on the progress we've made since then and the many challenges facing us.
In many ways, we've taken huge strides since 1994 but we still have a long way to go. There are still many shackles that bind us.
Many households today are on the brink of collapse because of a lack of the basic necessities and unequal power dynamics, based on masculinity and age. They are seldom able to eliminate the effects of poverty on their own.
Unemployment, HIV/Aids, alcohol and drug abuse and unwanted teen pregnancies place enormous pressure on these households, and their existence is under threat.
Dysfunctional families and schools (up to 80%), as well as toxic neighbourhoods, are the order of the day. Our children are products of these circumstances.
A practical example of the tragic consequences of this situation is the Cape Flats.
Cape Town and surrounds is not just one of the most beautiful places in the world – it is also dangerous. Gangs control certain areas with an iron fist and sell heroin, cocain and tik with impunity. Innocent people lose their lives daily as a result of escalating gang violence. In this breeding ground for criminal networks and illegal trade, it's no surprise that so many young people, in the absence of positive role models, join the gangs.
In his most recent book, Gang Town, journalist and writer Don Pinnock says that one in three young people aged 10 to 24 on the Cape Flats are in the care of a single parent. Almost a million children here are growing up without a father. About a quarter of them are raised by family members who are not their parents (usually grandmothers), while about 4% live with people who are not their families.
Large numbers of these children live with role models of dubious character. According to the Western Cape Youth Development Strategy (2013 report), a quarter of young people under 18 have a family member who is in prison; slightly less than a quarter have family members who take drugs; 15% have a family mmeber who belongs to a gang, and about 15% of households have no employed adult.
Many children on the Cape Flats are born into lives of poverty in terms of income, resources, opportunities and stimuli. And it's not as if their situation changes much later. Of Cape Town's 3.7 million residents, approximately a quarter of all adults and just under half of young people under 25 are unemployed.
In 2013, one in every five people lived in a self-constructed shack and more than a third of all Cape households are headed by women.
For South Africa as a whole, the situation is not much better. Almost 31,8% of the population works in the non-formal sector and 27.3% of households are dependent on state grants. Further, 18.8% of adults and 12.3% of children experience hunger daily. Approximately 30% of black people and one in four coloured people have no regular access to healthy food.
Although the current situation seems bleak, it could change quickly if large-scale economic and social transformation occurred.
A good place to start would be to reconstruct our welfare services and social policy. Grants in particular do not adddress the real causes of poverty and inequality. While grants really do help some households to survive, they are also misused.
We will also have to work harder to establish a society that does justice to all the sacrifices that were made for freedom.
Political freedom must make way for economic growth of poor people in our country. Constitutional words on paper mean very little when things like basic services, infrastructure, good roads, functional education, social security, effective healthcare and food security are not available to needy people.
After more than two decades of democracy, the freedom of millions of South Africans is just an illusion because they are still imprisoned in a socio-economic and social quagmire.
Perhaps the words of the American diplomat Priscilla Clap offer food for thought for this Freedom Day. According to the former politician Leon Wessels, she summed up the negotiations at the time as follows: "That era was theatre. It was not reality."
The question today is whether true freedom will eventually become a reality for millions of South Africans.
*Dr Chris Jones is a theologian associated with Stellenbosch University
